


Here Be Dragons

by MemoryDragon



Category: Iron Man Noir, Marvel Noir, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers - Ambiguous Fandom
Genre: Action/Adventure, Angst, Cap-IM Reverse Big Bang 2015, Cultural Differences, Dragons, Fantasy, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Magic, Mythical Beings & Creatures, Reverse Big Bang, Soul Bond, Steve Feels, Steve Rogers Is Not A Morning Person, Telepathic Bond, Telepathy, Temporary Character Death, Tony Feels
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-04
Updated: 2015-06-04
Packaged: 2018-04-02 18:35:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 67,976
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4070290
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MemoryDragon/pseuds/MemoryDragon
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tony Stark has come far from his adventures with Marvels, fighting the long War with no end in sight.  When he's shot from the sky, he finds himself in an underground utopia and a city of dragons.  One dragon in particular reminds Tony of what it's like to live again, but can he save the city from the monsters that lurk below and above?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter One

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Inoshi (angelinoshi)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/angelinoshi/gifts).



> **Disclaimer:** I do not own the Iron Man Noir comics, nor do I make any claim to.  
>  **Warnings:** Temporary character death is the big one, but there's a few things I didn't quite know how to phrase succinctly enough to put in the tags. There is a non-ideal reaction from one character about homosexuality, but it's a step in the right direction and there's hope that character will get there eventually. There are probably a ton of historical inaccuracies, but I tried and researched what I could considering this turned out to be much longer than it was supposed to. Considering Tony has a history of wide travel and I have him hunting down Hydra in this fic, I gave him some knowledge that most normal soldiers were unaware of, but there are no graphic details in the fic. Also, possibly some brief suicide idealization at one point? But not as in the character wanting to kill himself, but more like they are not fighting against death any more. But it is a side effect of grief and depression, so keep that in mind before going forward.
> 
> Also, dragons. Lots of dragons. And cuddles. Seriously, if you've read my other fics, there are no surprises in this one. H/C cuddles and dragons. XD  
>  **Thanks:** Many thanks to angelinoshi for creating the art that spurred this fic! It may have been damnably long, but the art deserved it. Seriously, go check out her art! It's beautiful and there would be no fic without it! She also helped with the thought-names and many other plot points. XD 
> 
> Many thanks as well to Narwhale_callin for betaing this massive beast, especially with the last bit needing to be done quickly. And finally, a great deal of thanks goes to ylixia, teaberryblue, monicaop21, Salmastyron, and Suppie for letting me rant and listening to me. To be honest hate, wank, and bullying is the reason I left my last fandom, and that was without the shipping wars. Talking with them helped me get through this fic despite all of that. I don't know if I'm up for a BB after this, or another Avengers fic, but at least I finished this one.  
>  **Notes:** It was a great honor to write this fic for the 2015 Cap-IM RBB, and for the beautiful art done by angelinoshi! You can find her art in the fic by clicking on the lovely preview!
> 
>   
>  [(Link to art here since AO3 is acting weird and not letting me link the thumbnail)](http://angelinoshi.tumblr.com/post/120539806200/capimrbb2015)  
>   
> 
> 
> Please click for inoshi's fantastic art! There be spoilers there though, so be warned!
> 
> You should definitely check it out and let her know how awesome it is! Without this art, there would be no fic, so thank/blame her for all of it. XD
> 
> It'll be short, they says. 6k minimum, they says. Two months to write instead of one, they says. You write fast, Mem, even with a cross-continent move, they says. They lies. They lies so much. 68 frickin' k and one extension later, this bloody fic is finally finished. It's the longest fic I've ever written and it felt so loooooooong. 
> 
> The things I do for dragons.
> 
> For Steve and the other dragons I drew heavily from MCU, since they're not in Noir-verse and that's the most I've had to deal with them. I'm sorry if Wanda is really off. I wrote most of her scenes before the movie came out and have very little experience with her in the comics. Same for Sharon, but her I excuse by being much younger than she normally is in canon. For the Iron Man characters, I tried to stay true to the Noir comics where I could, and threw in a mix of other universes when I needed more. Hopefully it works.
> 
> Anyway, check the warnings, don't fret too much if it's historically inaccurate, and bear with me when I got a little too happy coming up with magical plot devices Tony can bemoan the existence of. I hope you enjoy it!
> 
> **EDIT:** Now with an ongoing translation into Chinese by [dizzmark](http://archiveofourown.org/users/dizzmark/pseuds/dizzmark). It can be found [ here](http://www.movietvslash.com/thread-176142-1-1.html), but registration is required. Seriously, this fic is long. Dizzmark is amazing. XD

"First hand, Mr. Stark," Pepper ranted in his ear. "If you can take me along on your adventures, you can take me to war so I can do some proper reporting!"

"Miss Potts, while I wouldn't dare question your resolve," Tony said, grunting as he had to bank hard to the right. "I do question your timing. We are a bit busy."

He flew straight at the fighter plane, hearing the clang of bullets bouncing off the armor. He was very glad they had thoroughly tested the new armor to make sure bullet holes wouldn't be a problem. The new suit was working fine, the smaller size only adding to his agility in the air. He shot a missile, inwardly cursing as the Hydra plane went up at a rate that had to be hell on the pilot. It also meant the plane was now out of his line of sight.

"Busy enough that you can hold a competition and place bets with Rhodes over who wins this dog fight?"

"She's got a point there, sir," Rhodey said, and Tony could hear the traitor grinning. "Also, that's five for me. You're falling behind, Mr. Stark."

Tony cursed again, trying to maneuver into a place where he could find that plane he lost. He found another one, if not the same, and he flew into its blind spot. It was a terrific amount of G's to get there, but Tony resisted blacking out from the blood rushing to his head. He shot out the engine of the plane and tried to focus back on the conversation without sounding breathless. "Four. And the underdog will triumph with a flash-bang ending."

"Less chatter, more finding out what the damned Krauts want. Keep an eye out for this 'Madame Hydra' we keep hearing about," Fury growled over the comms.

"Talk to Jarvis, Miss Potts," Tony said, completely ignoring the general's order. "He's the one you must convince, not me. I'd have let you have a suit weeks ago."

"He said 'Women aren't fit for war,'" Pepper mimicked in a pretty fine impersonation of Jarvis's throaty bellow. " _You_ talk with-"

Tony cried out as something hit him square in the back, hard enough to throw him off balance. Damn it all to hell, _there_ was his missing plane.

"Tony!" Two voices called out. He was vaguely aware of a third yelling "Stark!" but he never paid Fury much attention anyway. Tony twisted the suit as much as possible, trying to get a visual on the bastard. That was a trick the Germans couldn't do. Tony smirked as he let loose a missile aimed right at the cockpit. He had the satisfaction of watching it blow up before the velocity of his movement caught up with him and he blacked out, falling from the sky.

[](http://angelinoshi.tumblr.com/post/120539806200/capimrbb2015)

* * *

_Ow._

Tony took his first waking moment to sit there and breathe, because that hurt like the dickens. His chest _hurt_ like it hadn't since before the War. That was bad. So was the aching in his ribs and the intense pain in his left leg, but his chest was currently the most worrisome.

He groaned as he opened his eyes. It was completely dark, of course. It's not like visual acuity would come in handy when his heart wasn't beating properly or when Tony would have felt a little better for the light. Still, Tony was used to the universe conspiring against him. There was a flashlight in the survival kit Jarvis had insisted on building into the suit, and Tony was ridiculously glad he had, just that once, listened to the old man's suggestion.

But first he had to actually get out of the suit.

It was painful to roll the suit over, but thankfully his arms weren't hurt. The suit was damned heavy though, and Tony made a slightly hysterical note to do more weight-lifting when he got home. When the War was over.

Lying on his back now, Tony spared a brief thought for home as his head swam and he failed to catch his breath. It was almost a dream now, a mythical place spoken of reverently in hushed whispers along with soft prayers of 'when the War is over.' Tony had never been that attached to New York, spending much of his time traveling, but the War was long in ways no adventure could ever be. What he wouldn't give for the smell of fresh coffee and the chair down in his workshop, surrounded by the smell of gunmetal. The only thing he'd have to worry about would be his next invention...

The pain in his chest reminded him he didn't have time to wallow in nostalgia. He allowed himself one last shallow breath as he chided himself for that terrible vice, then he raised his hands, searching for the hidden catches that would trigger the emergency release. Rhodey had insisted on that one, and Tony hadn't even put up a token protest. The last thing he needed was the suit to become a coffin.

_Ow_ again. But at least this time the suit opened up and Tony was able to wiggle free of it. The exertion left him gasping for breath and the intense pain in his chest doubled. He really needed to fix that.

As quickly as he could, Tony ran his fingers over the inner edge of the suit. He found the catch and various items came tumbling out. He searched until he found a long cylinder. "And let there be light," he said, his voice rough as he turned on the flashlight.

Once he could see, the problem was clear. If he had the breath he had just wasted on being dramatic, Tony would have cursed. He grabbed a few more tools now that he could see them and carefully reconnected the orichalcum with shaking hands. Then he grabbed the extra flashlight battery, shucking the casing as quickly as he could. He closed his eyes and didn't bother to attempt a deep breath, connecting the charge.

Tony woke up a second time with intense pain in his chest, but at least this time he could breathe. Electrocuting himself was terrific fun up till the screaming started. "Jarvis won't be happy about that," Tony muttered hoarsely, grateful that this time he had a light to wake up to. He couldn't have been out that long if the battery still worked, but he didn't want to think about what he'd do when that one ran out considering he'd just killed the extra. Thankfully the orichalcum only needed a very small charge. The lingering pain was probably more from over-charging than from the burns.

He was sorely tempted to just lie there in the dark cave. Getting up meant finding a way out. Finding away out meant going back to the War and Hydra. He'd been fighting for so long that the thought of just waiting, _resting_ , was almost enough to keep him there on the cold ground. But the others would worry and he knew far too well how wasted time cost lives.

"Well," Tony said to himself as he gingerly sat up. He ignored the aches of his body and the soul deep exhaustion, shaking his head to clear it. "What Jarvis doesn't know, he can't be angry about."

The pain in his chest receded to a stinging burn, which was promising. Now all he had to worry about was a sprained ankle and a few aching ribs. Without the pain of his heart running out of power, he would venture to guess his ribs were just bruised, maybe fractured.

Tony brought up the flashlight to check over the suit with a critical eye. "Not bad for the beating she took," he said, checking for any major fractures. He pulled out the rest of the survival kit, strapping on the guns and spare clips. Jarvis was certainly prepared for going down in enemy territory. "Looks like the suit is better built than me to withstand that. Hm... More buffering in the next version. Damn, that'll throw off the weight for the rockets and still doesn't solve the air pressure problem..."

As he worked through the math, Tony debated the pros and cons of putting the suit back on. It would put a strain on the pump, and he had been working towards being less reckless lately. Tony raised the flashlight to look around and whistled softly. "Well, well, well. What do we have here?"

He slowly shone the light around the cavern after locking down the suit, fascinated by the detail on the wall. It was a mural of bright colors and fantastical creatures. Taking care of his bad leg, he limped over to the nearest one, running his hand over the smoothed stone. "Dragons, huh? I'll be. Or should I say, by George?" It had to be what Hydra was after. He directed the light to the ceiling to check if he could expect company, then bit his lip. Those were a lot of rocks that he was surprised hadn't fallen on top of him. "Not getting out that way. Then let's see what we have here?"

The mural itself was carved in the stone, the color painted on the sinuous mineral curves. The dragons in the picture were fighting men, and Tony traced a painted spear thoughtfully. The armor the men wore looked like it couldn't be too far from when humans stopped hanging out in the trees. That didn't make the weapons any less deadly, however. Tony always had a healthy respect for weapons made by people who killed to survive every day, and they appeared to be working exceedingly well against creatures twice the size of humans.

Tony moved on to the next mural, the bright red of the dragon's blood a contrast against the emerald green of the scales. He gave a passing thought for what kind of paints must be used to get that sort of color, but most of his attention was on the dragon's final moments. It repulsed him a little, though he couldn't say why. Dragons were always the monsters in fairy tales, but now, looking at the dragon with its head raised off the ground and the mortal wound in its side, Tony couldn't help but wonder if it were otherwise.

The next wall showed dragons of all different colors flying to a great opening - a cavern? - with the last dragon flying up to the sun one last time before heading down.

After that, Tony felt like he was reading a Jules Verne novel. If that was a cave, then the next mural showed a paradise under the earth, lush and green. Tony snorted at the thought. He didn't know what was under the earth, but he was pretty darn sure it wasn't utopia. He'd gotten his hopes up at the first two pictures, but now he knew it was just a farce. Whatever Hydra thought was down here, it had to be a dead end.

The murals went on, showing the dragons building cities and warring against each other, but Tony lost interest quickly in favor of conserving his light source and finding a way out. He stayed close to the wall, since the lack of walking sticks made it difficult to move on his bad leg. He felt like he was going further down, but he couldn't get out the way he came in. And maybe...

He turned off the flashlight, grinning to himself. He _hadn't_ been going down, and that was a light up ahead.

He limped the rest of the way, the light getting brighter as he went. It was also getting hotter, but not unbearably so. There was a break in the murals, and Tony slowed to a halt in front of what looked like a gate where the light was coming from. He drew his gun, ready to shoot if there were any Hydra goons on the other side.

There were sounds, but not those of soldiers' boots. They sounded like birds and other bugs, things he might expect in a jungle or a forest. Carefully, he peered out around the gate.

Jarvis had all kinds of rules when Tony was growing up. With his mother taken by consumption when he was a child, Jarvis raised him after his father.... Well, Jarvis had a lot of rules. One of them was never drop a gun. When loaded, it's dangerous. When empty, it was still potentially useful to the enemy, or could be used as a blunt object. That was the rule, simple and concise, and Tony saw it as pretty decent common sense. It was one rule he always followed.

What he saw on the other side of that wall nearly caused him to drop the gun, even with Jarvis's remembered voice screaming at him about it in his ear. It was only reflex that stopped him.

On the other side of the wall was Milton's lost paradise. Putting the gun away, Tony rested a hand on the wall, staring at the lush jungle. He doubted even Rhodey would recognize half of the flora Tony saw, and they were all most certainly beyond him. Was this where the heat came from?

He took a halting step forward, looking around in wonder. There was a city in the distance, which could be what Hydra was after. The thought made his blood run cold despite the heat of the jungle. For him to have fallen down here, Hydra couldn't have been too far from finding it before the cave in. The thought of Hydra with their tanks and guns down here, destroying everything in sight that wasn't a weapon... It was all too easy to picture.

He picked up a walking stick on the ground near one of the big canopy trees, trying to make out more of the city as he tested it. What wonders could be in such a city? Or indeed, if Hydra was interested in it, what weapons? There were things flying over it that weren't quite birds. Big things. No, it couldn't be-

Tony only had a moment when something caught his eye coming from the sky. Instinct took over, and he rolled to the ground even before he figured out the danger. Something that wasn't quite metal clanged against the stone he’d just been standing on. Ignoring the pain in his ankle, Tony forced himself to run without babying it. He drew one of his guns, pivoting as he fired.

There was a loud roar of pain, and Tony saw...

'By George' was right.

Tony didn't allow himself time to marvel at the fact he'd just shot a _dragon_. He dodged the claws, wincing in pain at his ribs. Why was everything always trying to kill him? He was charming, good in bed, and had more than enough money to make friends with everyone, yet he always managed to find enemies wherever he went.

He fired again, but the shot went wide and the nearest tree was too far off for any proper cover. The dragon was blocking the tree he'd gotten his walking stick from. Clever bastard. He only just managed to duck behind a rock as fire spewed from the dragon's mouth.

He started to sweat as the air heated, but he held steady. All he had to do was wait for the dragon to take a breath, then he could-

" _Stop_."

The fire stopped as Tony winced in pain. Who ever just spoke was _loud_. But his ears weren't ringing, even if it felt like they should be.

"There's an army out there," a male voice said, strong and clear. A commander if Tony had ever heard one. "He's human. You know what the last one did!"

Tony got a feeling. Flashes of color - red, white, blue - art, and a glowing light spoken of only in legends. The feeling of calm after the rain and the stubborn of a rock that refused to move. Strangest of all, that brief mix of feeling felt like a _name_.

"He's on the mural," the first voice said, female, just as commanding as the male. "This is foretold. He is needed."

"He's _human_." Tony felt the anger in the voice, the betrayal. "He was thinking of an army razing the city to the ground!"

Keeping his gun steady, Tony peeked out from behind his rock. There were no humans there, but two dragons. The first, the one that attacked him, was dark blue with two horns on its head and a long, spiked neck. Two giant wings spanned out behind it, obviously agitated and the dragon had a truly frightening set of claws that Tony didn't want to meet personally. In the center of its chest was a silver star made of some sort of stone ornament.

The second dragon was deep red. It didn't have horns and instead had a rose-pattern ornament, but otherwise looked the same. A little smaller, perhaps, and without a bleeding shoulder, but Tony didn't fancy fighting two of them without his armor. He could maybe take out one of them now, while they were-

The red dragon turned to glare at him, sharp brown eyes holding a surprising amount of fire as she looked him straight in the eye. "Oh, for pity's sake. _Men._ Do you ever stop to think to talk to strangers first, rather than attacking them?"

Funniest thing was that the dragon's mouth wasn't moving, but it felt like she was definitely the one talking. "No offense, Ma'am," Tony said, thinking it didn't hurt to be polite. "But the last dragon I fought with wasn't so friendly. And this one did attack me first." Not that Fing Fang Foom had been much of an actual dragon, but it was still a legitimate concern.

"The last 'dragon' you fought was a human who was dressed like a lizard and sensationalized in your stories," she said, then turned to the blue dragon leaving Tony baffled as to how she knew that. "And you-" That name-feeling from before was repeated again. "Attacking first when he's already wounded! What good does killing him do?"

The blue dragon flattened closer to the ground, folding his wings against his back in a posture that looked like shame. "He was thinking of armies! And others that would follow him down to see the city!" the male voice said, apparently coming from the blue dragon. "You know what happened the last time we let a human in. He killed-" another name-feeling: Green, Gray and Brown. Curiosity and wonder as wide and big as the cavern sky. The scent of wind on a summer day, and the tang of sweet spices and minerals from the earth's secret places. Deep magic that was as malleable as a branch in the wind.. "-and..."

There was a half-cut-off feeling. Tony only got a sense of a deep relationship. The red dragon's posture softened, her wings fanning out to touch the blue dragon. "This one seems reasonable."

"So did the other one," the blue dragon said, a light growl beneath his words.

"Doesn't matter," a third voice said, deep and warm. Tony was startled to find a third dragon joining them. This one was brown, with horns, and some kind of bird's crest on his chest. When had he snuck up?

The brown dragon looked at him, and Tony had the impression the dragon was amused. Amused and listening to Tony's thoughts, which would probably explain how they spoke without talking. Small wonder the red one had known about Fing Fang Foom. It unnerved him, to know they could hear what he thought, and he took a step back, only belatedly remembering his bad foot. He winced, then tried to cover it.

The brown dragon turned back to the blue one in what was definitely a shrug. Another name feeling: scarlet, magenta, fuchsia. Both the sunrise and sunset. Chaos of an oncoming storm, but the calm and quiet of the silent woods. Dark and mysterious, deep magic. "-said if he is killed, it will disrupt the magic. She saw the mural as it was carved and had a premonition flash. He's important, whoever he is."

That didn't sound ominous at all. Still, the ancient prophecy was working in Tony's favor for once. That almost never happened. It was nice to have it saving him, rather than condemning him to death. Heard one, heard them all...

The blue dragon didn't look his way, ignoring Tony all together. "Come on, man," the brown dragon said. "Let's leave the human to-" Bright red and navy blue, passion and flame, dancing and music. The rose that blooms in adversity and the immutable constant of the sea. "-and get that wound seen to."

The strangest thing was that Tony could _feel_ the blue dragon wavering. He didn't like this mind-reading business. It felt too open. Too vulnerable. But if it meant anything... "For what it's worth, I'm trying to stop the army that has been looking for this place," Tony said, wincing as he tried to take a deep breath and remember his ribs.

"You are wounded as well," the red dragon said.

Tony waved it off. "There was a firefight in-" Tony looked at the sky to get his bearings by the position of the sun, but he was startled to realize there was no sun. There was no _sky_. Only an extremely large cavern that must span for miles. "How-"

"You're underground, human," the brown dragon said, amusement once again lacing his voice. "The stones and moss light our sky, and magic darkens it."

"Magic..." Tony didn't know if he should scoff or be amazed. 'Magic,' in his experience, tended to be science that idiots didn't understand. But he was currently under the earth and talking to telepathic dragons, so he wasn't discounting anything right now no matter how skeptical it made him. He did want a closer look at those stones and the moss though. That was on his to-do list. That, and getting back to the others, because the long War was still on-going, and they needed to keep Hydra from finding this place.

That thought sobered him, killing his curiosity. As much as he'd like to explore, he wasn't an adventurer any more. And the War was so long...

Name-feeling: crimson, white, onyx. Soaring through the sky and flexible as branches in the wind, but sturdy as the deeply grounded roots. Healing and a gentle stream under the flickering light from under the trees. "-take-" Blue dragon name-feeling, Good God, he needed proper names for them all. "-to the city. I'll take care of the human."

The blue dragon looked about to argue, but was quelled by a strong sense of disapproval from the red one. His head hung low, and Tony was reminded of a kicked puppy. Despite the fact that the dragon had attacked him, Tony felt a bit of sympathy for being on the wrong end of that stare.

"I'm... sorry," the blue dragon said, looking at Tony finally. Then he launched himself into the sky in a way that must have hurt his shoulder where Tony had shot him.

Tony got a sense of a shrug and exasperation from the brown dragon. "I'll look after him," the brown dragon said before flying off as well.

Tony took a moment to admire the dragon's aerodynamics. They were elegant creatures in flight, but he had a feeling the brown dragon excelled at it. And the fact he knew that felt both strange and intrusive.

"The mind bond bothers you," the red dragon said.

"It's... very invasive," Tony said thoughtfully. "Like I know things I shouldn't, or that _you_ know things that should be secret."

"You are very guarded for a human," the red dragon said. "I can only read your surface thoughts, but nothing below them. One would think you're hiding something."

"Or that I value privacy," Tony said, but he was honestly a little relieved. At least they couldn't comb through his life.

"The last human to come through was also like you - guarded. You'll have to forgive-" dragon name, the blue one "-for his rashness. He lost a mentor and a dear friend because of that human."

Tony shrugged. He knew about revenge and grief well enough to know it doesn't always make one rational. "I'm willing to make amends with old blue if... Say, you don't happen to have actual names, do you?"

He got the impression the red dragon was laughing at him. Though there was no sound, he could hear a musical chime that belonged to the dragon's mental voice. "We do not have names as you know them. We call each other by the reflections of our souls. Is it difficult for you, human, not to have names?"

"Only if there's more than one of you of the same color," Tony replied.

"The other human gave us names as well, but I think this time I would like to choose. May I?" the red dragon asked.

"May you what?" Tony asked, baffled by her seeking permission to name herself. She quite frankly didn't seem like the type.

"Take a look inside your mind for human names?"

He felt the red dragon's mind brushing up against his and shivered. It felt like a hand was brushing over the heart pump, too close and too terrifying. "How about I think of different names and you choose from those?" he asked, taking another step back despite his foot, feeling unsettled.

"Very well, guarded-one," the red dragon said, and Tony held back a relieved sigh as the pressure in his mind faded. He started to think of names, listening to the dragon's mental voice to see which ones she liked.

"You know many female names," the red dragon said slyly.

"I have a very fine appreciation of the fairer sex," Tony said. "They tend to have a lot more sense than we do."

The dragon's eyes were disapproving, but he could feel the amusement rolling off of her. "You're a scoundrel, that's what you are," she said, bowing her head and touching his cheek with a careful claw. Tony tensed, but relaxed when he realized it was a light touch. "But you may call me Peggy."

"Tony Stark," he said. Her head was low enough that he hesitantly returned the bow and touch. The dragon's scales were softer than he thought they would be, and Peggy gave a pleased chirp. Then he took her front claw that was still touching his cheek and kissed the back of it, smiling up at her rakishly. "It's a pleasure to meet you."

Again, he got a disapproving look, but followed with a sense of amusement. Good to know his charm worked on other species. "Definitely a scoundrel. Now, you are also wounded, so let's get you to the healers."

"Healers?" Tony asked skeptically as he looked around for another walking stick since he'd lost his other one in the fight. Either she meant a doctor and Tony already knew time was the best healer for his particular injuries, or herbs that were generally more of a placebo than anything. Rhodey was great with herbs, but Tony was much more skeptical of eastern medicine that practiced that sort of thing.

Peggy's nostrils went round in what Tony assumed was draconic body language for smiling. She moved a little ways off, then returned to Tony with a sturdy looking-branch. He took it gratefully. "You will not believe me, I see," Peggy said. "I'll just have to take you so you can understand for yourself."

She crouched down low to the ground, fanning her wings out. "Come on, up you get."

"Ma'am?" Tony asked, limping closer with the help of the make-shift cane. "Even I usually wine and dine a girl before riding-"

Tony yelped as Peggy's long tail thwapped the ground next to him, sharp spikes on the end gleaming in the light. "Too crude?" he asked once he found his dignity again.

"Hurry up or I might decide you're too heavy half-way there."

"Yes, Ma'am," Tony said, hiding a smile as he slowly walked around her wings. He hesitated when he got to her neck, wondering how to do this. There were spikes up to the joints in her shoulder blades that he could hold on to, but nothing after that. It wouldn't be comfortable either. He'd been bare-backing before and it usually never ended well for his rear end. He had a nice rear end, but he refused to go without preparation in general.

"More than I needed to know about your sexual preferences, Tony," Peggy said mildly.

"Now who's being crude?" Though he figured he deserved that one. He hid the thoughts of his innuendos as quickly as he could, because with the telepathic link he wasn't sure how much got through. His other affairs were...

"Love is love," Peggy said, curling her tail about Tony's feet comfortingly as she proved he hadn't hidden his thoughts quickly enough. "Do humans not agree?"

"Depends on how it's done," Tony said, though the tension in his shoulders eased at the lack of condemnation. Very few people knew about his dalliances with men. It wasn't respectable for an adventurer, though given his money and position in society, it was tolerated. That didn't mean it was easy.

"I begin to understand why you are so guarded, Tony Stark," Peggy said. "Come. Let us go to the healers."

"I'd hate to say no to a lady," he said. Her tail tightened briefly before letting him go, and Tony eyed her back warily. Then with a sigh he slid the walking stick through the suit harness straps on his back and swung his bad leg over. Once sitting, he tried to find a semi-comfortable position between two of her spikes.

"Hold on tight and try not to impale yourself," Peggy said.

"What do you-"

She took off in the air without further warning, her powerful legs springing her upward and her wings taking care of the lift. Tony clutched at the spike in front of him as his stomach dropped out.

He would be angry, but he probably deserved that one too. He would not give her the satisfaction of yelling though. Or, at least, he tried not to yelp.

Once they evened out, Tony relaxed and leaned against the back spike. Peggy's powerful wings kept them aloft, and he could appreciate any kind of flying, even if it wasn't in the suit. He started to laugh, leaning forward to see the jungle. Then he closed his eyes to enjoy the breeze. He could feel how pleased Peggy was at his reaction.

"You enjoy flying?" she asked.

"It's different like this," Tony said, opening his eyes to get a better look. In a plane or in the suit, Tony was only exceeded by Rhodey as a pilot, but this was a level of its own. He could feel the wind running past him and if there had been clouds, he'd have been able to touch them. It was freeing in a way he hadn't felt since before the War.

There was nothing he liked better than flying.

"Think of male names," Peggy said, her voice in his mind. It was easy to hear over the wind, if he was really hearing at all.

"Why?" Tony asked, knowing his voice was definitely lost, but figuring she would hear it anyway.

"I wish to name the others," she said, and he could sense a mischievous glint to her thoughts.

"Who am I to deny a lady?" He compiled a mental list. He may not date as many men, but he remembered enough and he had a knack for faces and names.

"We're entering the city, if you'd like to look. We're landing soon," Peggy said, and he grabbed hold of her spike. As much as he didn't want the flight to end, the city was fascinating. Dragons flew across the city sky, darting between buildings or flying lazily in circles. There were rounded towers that held stones aloft at their peaks that made Tony burn with curiosity. He wanted dearly to study the gravitational device used. There were other buildings too, with long chimneys and wide balconies, decorated with myriads of colors and ornamental patterns that reminded Tony of the east. Did dragons use similar ways to make pigments or did they have other ways to make the vivid colors? They had to, for them to still be so bold when he wasn't given the impression that they were newly painted. Or maybe it was the fact it was underground, lacking in the elements that darken and erode human colors. 

He barely felt the landing, mind whirling with questions. "How many of there are you here?"

"About a hundred in this clan. I originally came from a much larger clan of three hundred," Peggy replied, bowing down so that Tony could dismount. "You are curious."

"There's so many things I could learn if I could apply this to-" Tony cut his curiosity short. As much as he would love to understand, there was a war going on. A war that threatened the very existence of this place. The gravitational effect might be useful, but the rest...

Peggy lowered her eyelids in an expression that felt like a frown. She didn't say anything, however, leading him into the building. He was grateful for the walking stick now, as dragon buildings were huge and probably required a lot of walking.

It was almost unbearably hot when they went inside. He saw why when they got further in - open pits of molten earth acting like Roman pools. He stayed away from those, and Peggy's wing automatically came up to block him from the worst of the heat. "We don't like the cold," she said by way of explanation.

Tony nodded, wiping away the sweat from his brow. Under her wings, it was only as bad as a desert, and he'd been in plenty of deserts before. There was another dragon sitting on a dais, a deeper red than Peggy and also lacking horns. Did the horns denote sex? This dragon was also lacking a crest that he'd seen on the others.

"This is-" Scarlet, magenta, fuchsia. Both the sunrise and sunset. Chaos of an oncoming storm, but the calm and quiet of the silent woods. Dark and mysterious, deep magic. "-one of our strongest magicians. You may call her Wanda," Peggy said. "Wanda, this is the human who was at the south wall, Tony Stark."

"Human names?" the dragon - Wanda - said, proving she was definitely female. "How quaint."

"You are the one I owe my timely saving to, I assume? Thanks for that," Tony said, with a loose salute. "Though I don't believe in-"

"It does not matter if you believe in magic," Wanda said, though there was no anger about her. "It is around you in great quantities. I can see the chaos magic shifting and pulling at everything you touch. You will cause great disruption of the balance."

"I'm sorry?" Tony said, not sure if he was apologizing for being a disruption or not following her meaning.

"You are guarded," Wanda said, standing and coming closer. She lowered her head until she was staring directly into Tony's eyes. They were a dark brown that made Tony think of the stars, though he doubted she had ever seen them, living down here. "There will be a time when those walls will harm you. If you wish to survive, you must break them down."

"I'll keep that in mind," Tony said politely, wondering if he was required to do the cheek greeting he had done with Peggy.

"You won't," Wanda said, this time with underlining amusement, not mystery. "But remember those words, Tony Stark, when you need to be found. You are taking him to the healers?"

Abruptly, she turned to Peggy and Tony couldn't help but feel relieved. There was something unnerving about Wanda, and the way she looked at him made his skin itch. She had a presence about her that Tony could only describe as raw power. She seemed kind though, even if a little nutty.

"I am," Peggy said, though her head was cocked to the side. "I thought you said he wasn't dangerous?"

"Not to us, not directly. But the chaos clings to him. He is a nexus of what must come," Wanda said, moving carefully away. Her tail swished after her as she walked. "I must consult the mural again."

Peggy pulled Tony closer with her tail as Wanda went to the balcony and took off, shielding him from the gust of hot air.

"What was that about?" Tony asked as he peered around Peggy's wing.

Peggy's tongue flicked out, hissing softly. "I'm not sure. It doesn't appear to be good, whatever it is. Wanda has always been a bit... eccentric, but her warnings are wise. This worries me."

"You're not going to think the blue guy was right to kill me now, are you?" Tony asked.

"Well, you are guarded," Peggy replied playfully, some of her unease dispersing in the banter. "But Steve can sometimes be stubborn. He'll come around. Just let him sulk for a little while."

"Steve, huh?" Tony hid a smirk at the thought of sulking dragons. He didn't think 'Steve' would appreciate the name either.

"And the other dragon you met is Sam," Peggy said with an air of finality as she led him down the stairs.

They were hard for Tony to get down, but not bad enough that he had to actually climb them and the walking stick helped. "Do all dragon buildings have stairs?" he asked, wondering why dragons might need them at all.

"Only usually to the healers," she replied, taking the steps easily. "Or if the old or wounded have problems flying."

"Thoughtful," Tony said, letting them fall into a companionable silence as he limped down. Thoughtful, but damned inconvenient in this case. These stairs simply weren't meant for humans, especially not one with bruised ribs to make breathing difficult. He was, he supposed, not their usual wounded.

The healer's room was a large, open space with several stone daises. A hornless, light blue dragon and a phoenix chest plate came up to them, calling the dragon name-feeling. Tony translated it to 'Peggy' after a moment's thought.

"You're back! Is that the human everyone is talking about?" the dragon asked, her voice young.

"Yes," Peggy said, twining her neck around the smaller dragon. They both closed their eyes, rubbing cheek to cheek as Tony watched curiously. Were all dragons this tactile? "This is Tony Stark," Peggy continued, moving away, but still within wing distance, and her wing spanned over the smaller dragon's. "And this is-" Discipline and dedication. Light blue and dark brown. A warrior's spirit burning bright as a bon fire on a winter's night. Golden yellow rose, just blossoming, and a deep, running river with water like ice. "Sharon. She is my younger sister. Are you on duty at the moment?"

"First aid practice," Sharon said, a little shyly as she looked up at Peggy. "Sharon?"

"Human names for the poor human to say," Peggy said, amusement lacing her tone. "Do you like it? I picked it out just for you."

"Yes! It's pretty," Sharon said, and Tony got the impression of bright happiness. He wondered what it would have been like to have a sibling he adored that much. Would things have been less lonely after Dad...?

Peggy's wings wrapped around him as well, pulling him closer, and Tony immediately thought of walls. Walls were what Wanda had called them. Walls would probably be a good mental projection to keep the others out. He was rewarded by Sharon's confusion and Peggy's rumbling sigh.

Sharon leaned in close to him and Tony just barely remembered not to flinch when her claw came up to his cheek. He reached out and touched hers, then kissed her claw as well, because a beautiful lady deserved to be flattered. He was pretty sure she was beautiful for a dragon. He knew from Pepper not to imply otherwise.

"Well, Sharon," Peggy said. "Do you feel up to healing a human, or should I get the head healer?"

"I can do it, I think." Crimson, white, onyx. Soaring phoenix in the sky. Flexible as branches swaying in the wind, but sturdy as the roots buried deep in the ground. "-said first aid was important, so I've been practicing," Sharon said, looking at Tony. Her head bobbed slightly as she took him in from head to toe.

"That's Sam, by the way," Peggy said helpfully, earning a grin from Tony. Her joy in the human names was endearing.

When Sharon finished looking him over, Tony carefully did a spin, using the walking stick to take the weight off his bad leg. "Would you like to see the rest of me?" he said, waggling his eyebrows over his shoulder at her.

Sharon giggled, a sound like soft chimes. Peggy just lightly cuffed him on the shoulder with her wing tip as a reminder to behave.

"It looks like just a slight bone fracture and some muscles that need mending," Sharon said, ignoring his pass once she controlled her laughter. "I should be able to do it."

"Sharon has just been made part of the-" Another dragon name-feeling, but this time it was an aerial image of the city and a sense of _home_ that made Tony ache just a little. "-protection. That is what these crests mean," Peggy said, nodding to the stone crests they each wore.

Tony sat down on the dais after Peggy led him there. The stone was warm, but thankfully not scorching, and he took off his boot and rolled up his pants with a wince. His leg was swollen from all the walking he'd been doing, and it was a relief to not be on it. He held it up for Sharon to see.

"And what do dragons need protecting from?" he asked, thinking back to the city walls. They'd been high.

"Other dragon clans, though that sort of war is less common now," Peggy answered, sliding behind him and watching Sharon closely. "There are other dangerous creatures under the earth as well. Some sleep, forgotten by time. Others are more common. You should consider yourself lucky that Steve attacked you and not a manticore. They are less willing to be reasoned with."

Tony was about to reply when Sharon poked at Tony's pant leg with one of her claws. "What are these... clothes?" she asked. "Why do you have them?"

Aside from the stone crests, Tony hadn't seen dragons wearing anything else, so he supposed it was a fair question. "Clothes protect me from the elements. Also, my dignity. All humans wear them."

"How strange," Sharon said, focusing on the swollen leg.

"You should see the fashions in-" Tony cut himself off with a gasp, a brief flash of pain going through his leg. There was a golden light in Sharon's claw that Tony hadn't been paying attention to. But it faded as the pain did, and Tony gazed at his leg in shock. It was no longer swollen and it felt...

"Well, are you going to walk?" Sharon asked proudly. Peggy wrapped her tail around Sharon's, beaming at her sister.

Carefully, because his ribs still hurt, Tony put his walking stick down and stood up. His foot felt fine. "I'll be damned," Tony said, breathing out in a rush, which hurt, but there were more important things to focus on.

"See? Humans aren't that different to heal," Sharon said.

"How did-"

"Magic," Peggy replied, and there was a hint of laughter about her wings as they fanned out behind her.

"Life energy transference of some sort to accelerate healing time," he said, thinking back to the Chinese concept of Chi. Were they related? He needed to study the phenomenon more, because the potential was endless and-

Tony closed his eyes and sat back down on the dais. While this could have a _huge_ impact on the War, he also suspected it would take a life time of studying. A life time he didn't have to waste if the Nazis won before that. The War sometimes felt like it would never end.

He smiled as he reopened his eyes. Sharon and Peggy touched their wings together, not looking at him. "You got one of those miracle cures for my ribs too?" Tony asked, getting the impression they were talking about him.

"I... yes! I can help with those." Sharon raised her claw again, and this time Tony paid close attention to the light as she healed his ribs. He may not have time to study what he wanted to down here, but that didn't mean he couldn't try to learn as much as he could now. Also, it meant a distraction from the sharp pain that accompanied the healing, and Tony needed that when he could feel his ribs mending.

When she finished, Tony hesitated, then opened his shirt. "You wouldn't happen to be able to do anything for my heart?" he asked, laying the pump bare. His heart wasn't a pretty sight, scarred and ugly. While it was true the pump didn't have to be charged any more so long as the orichalchum was connected, the muscle itself would give out in a few years. The machinery could only do so much.

Sharon and Peggy looked at each other again, and Peggy's tail curled around his waist comfortingly. "There is too much metal. Metal resists our magic and makes it harder to heal. I do not think even our best healer could do much for you, not without killing you or the healer first."

Tony hid his disappointment behind a carefree smile, though he didn't think either of them were fooled when he buttoned his shirt back up. With the War going on, he had never expected to live past it, not really. But his heart... All those adventures looking for a cure. He almost wanted to laugh that even here with magic and talking dragons, his heart still couldn't be healed. "Well, then, I should-"

He cut himself off as he tried to stand, vertigo making him stumble. Peggy caught him with her tail, setting him down as the dizziness receded. "The healing takes energy from both parties, Tony. You need rest, even after light healings."

"I'll keep that in mind," Tony said, this time standing up slower and with some assistance from Sharon. It passed quickly enough, and Tony suspected a bit of food would set him to right.

[ ](http://angelinoshi.tumblr.com/post/120539806200/capimrbb2015)

He spent the afternoon learning more about dragon culture and not thinking about his failing heart. Dragons didn't really cook food, so much as slice it and marinate it with spices Tony could only half-recognize. Which made eating interesting, as Tony had to stick to non-meats. He'd tried raw fish in Japan (before the War, before everything was complicated and the world wasn't as dark; the relations between countries had been strained, but things had been brighter), but the red meat the dragons favored probably wouldn't sit well. Peggy promised a better selection tomorrow, since dragons took their guests' comfort seriously.

They could all 'speak' English because it was mind to mind, rather than with words - apparently last time they had been 'speaking' in German, but Peggy liked English names better. Dragons lived for around a thousand years, and Sharon was matured, but still very young in dragon terms. Dragons lived in clans that occasionally visited, sometimes fought, but mostly left each other alone due to distances and travel dangers. There were ancient legends about the sky and traveling underground due to the dangers of humans, and Tony wondered if there weren't some truth to the old stories of dragons that he had grown up with. They never ended well for the dragons.

He told some of his adventures at dinner, as dragons valued stories and art. It was interesting, retelling his own stories rather than letting Virgil or Pepper do it. He was no wordsmith, but he could tell a tale well enough, and the dragons that joined them ("Dum-dum isn't really a name," Tony said as Peggy introduced him. "It suits him," Peggy said as she went on to introduce Gabe.) seemed to enjoy the telling.

They also had no use for cloth in dragon society, as Sharon had pointed out earlier. Tony realized the implications of this when he was shown to a bed, a large stone dais that was a little too hot and too uncomfortable. Tony pretended to be agreeable, hiding behind his mental walls to lie, and waited for his kind hosts to leave.

He snuck out to the roof after that. It was closer than the ground as the stairs he had gone down earlier hadn't even gone a third of the way down the building. But it was colder up there, and after the heat of the building it felt fantastic. Tony stared at the darkened 'sky', seeing the moss's faded glow reflecting in the crystals in a way that made the shadows dance. He tried to think of its potential uses and the science behind it, but his mind kept drifting back to the problem of his heart. He hadn't even been looking for a solution, not since the War started, but there was still the crushing sense of disappointment. It wasn't like he really needed much now with the orichalcum, but what would it feel like, to have this hunk of metal out of his chest?

Tony missed the times when he could have just been searching for new things or new ways to cure his heart. When it wasn't just about the War. When he could be thinking of ways to use that light for energy in homes or hospitals, not to keep the troops safe. The US had only been in the War for three years, but Tony had been fighting longer than that. And he was just so _tired_ of it all...

It was so tempting, to stay down here and start a grand adventure again, just to get his blood pumping. Like the good days Rhodey liked to talk about, quietly now, over the campfire while Tony stared into it like it could burn all the death away. Even Pepper was weary, worn around the edges like the frayed paper she took notes on in the cold nights between missions. The war was long and if there was an end in sight, Tony was too much in the dark to see it. There was too much horror, too much death. Too many camps where they arrived too late, with pits of bodies stacked high. He was just...

Tired.

"Can't sleep?"

Tony turned around, surprised to see the blue dragon who first attacked him. There were what looked like leaves held in a sling around his left shoulder, but otherwise he looked the same. Big, intimidating, and bulky. He should have made more noise than that arriving, and Tony found himself reaching for his gun before he knew what he was doing.

The blue dragon reared back, but Tony forced his gun arm down. He closed his eyes as he tried to calm his racing heart. "Sorry," Tony said, waiting for the pump to regulate his heartbeats once again. "I... It's not a good idea to sneak up on me. I've seen too much fighting recently."

"Are all humans this jumpy?" the blue dragon... what had Peggy called him? Steve. Steve said warily, folding his wings but watching him closely.

"Only when people try to kill you on a daily basis," Tony said, putting the gun back in its holster. He took the holster off, folding it and setting it to the side, a little too unsettled by his nerves to wear it now. "That's what they do, during wars."

"I saw," Steve said, looking away. "What I could see in your mind was..."

Tony tightened his own mental walls, but Steve didn't appear to notice. "It's no fairy tale," Tony said, leaning against the rail of the balcony and trying not to shiver. What had felt nice when he came out was quickly becoming just the wrong side of cold.

Steve crooked his wing in agreement and let the conversation drop. Tony was privately grateful. "I wanted to apologize for attacking you earlier," Steve said, his voice soft in Tony's mind.

Tony waved it off. "You were protecting the city. From what I hear about the last several humans, they weren't so friendly."

"I've only seen four," Steve said. "One of them brought diseases from the upper world, and it killed many of us. The second and third wouldn't listen, calling us monsters and trying to kill us. The last..." Steve trailed off, his head lowering closer to the ground.

"Like I said, no blame," Tony said. "I'll let bygones be bygones. Sorry for shooting you." He looked at the still-covered wound and felt vaguely guilty, despite the fact it had been self-defense.

Steve came closer, his claws clicking against the stone of the building. "It will heal," he said, looking out into the night. "Is it too hot for you to sleep?"

"Down there, yes," Tony replied. "Up here, it's a bit too cold. You wouldn't happen to have any blankets?"

"Dragons do not use 'cloth'," Steve said apologetically. "The last human slept on the ground level with a make-shift shelter."

It was late and the thought of making a shelter made him weary, but Tony nodded. If it was the only way he could get some sleep, then he'd do it. "Where can-"

"You could sleep up here?" Steve said hesitantly. "I don't need as much warmth as the others do because of..." There was a half-feeling of a name, wisdom and age and trees, but it was cut off.

"Are you offering to keep me warm?" Tony asked, knowing some subjects were best left untouched.

"If you like," Steve said. He laid down on the roof, holding his wing out in invitation. "As an apology."

This was definitely one of the strangest invitations to bed that Tony had ever received. But he was exhausted and the thought of making a shelter in the dark held no appeal. On the other hand, Steve _had_ tried to kill him earlier and he'd set his guns down...

"You already apologized," Tony said. "What's the real point of this?"

"I still don't trust you," Steve said. "Or your weapons. I can keep an eye on you like this, but on the ground it's easier for you to sneak off."

"Fair enough," Tony said. "Though I'm currently unarmed. How do I know _you_ won't turn on me?"

"You could pull down your walls and see for yourself," Steve challenged.

"I think I'll trust Peggy to keep you in line," Tony said wryly, backing away from the dare.

"Peggy?"

"Uh, the..." He tried - and failed - to think of the dragon name-feeling. He could only think of it in pieces, not as a whole. He could feel Steve's confusion. "The red dragon who brought me into the city," Tony said finally, giving up.

Bright red and navy blue, passion and flame, dancing and music. The rose that blooms in adversity and the immutable constant of the sea.

"Yes," Tony replied. "Peggy. She said you're Steve, by the way."

Tony couldn't have said what it was, either Steve's eyes or the line of his wings, but something made Tony think that the dragon was affronted, and Tony had to stifle a laugh. "That is not my name," Steve said with a definite pout.

"I can't exactly say your other one," Tony pointed out as he walked closer. He might as well take Steve up on his offer. He ducked under Steve's wing, feeling warmer already. Steve's body put out a lot of heat on its own.

"Alright," Steve grumbled, watching Tony as he tried to make himself comfortable against Steve's flank.

It was a little awkward, but he found a position half-sitting and leaning against the dragon. Steve's scales were soft and the muscle under them was hard, but not the worst sort of bed Tony had ever slept on. And when he leaned back, he could see the cavern's ceiling high above them. The crystal growths that hung from it reflected the soft white of the now dimmed moss. Not quite a full moon level of light, but enough to semi-see if the building's lights were turned off.

"Strange to sleep outside but not to see the stars," he said, covering a yawn. Even when London's pollution had made it hard to see, he could still see the moon. Especially the last time he was there, when all the lights were turned off to hide from German bombs.

Steve shifted underneath him, raising his head to look at the ceiling as well. "What do they look like, the stars?" Steve asked. "They're in some of the old stories, but all we have is the pattern like my crest. Do they really look like this?"

"You've really never seen them? Never snuck up to the outside world to look?" Tony asked, surprised in spite of himself. The gate Tony had come through had been small, but surely the dragons could go up top in other ways if they wanted to.

"No one has been up top in over a thousand years," Steve said. "We're weaker up there now. We've been under here so long that the magic in the upper world is too weak to sustain us. The others would sometimes try to take a quick peek when we were younger, but I was always too sick and too small to go."

Tony wondered what it would be like to never see the stars, the moon, or to never feel the sun on his back. He shivered despite the warmth of Steve's body. "The stars they're... They're distant. Just like small lights in the sky. Sometimes I look up at the stars and I feel... small. But they're also comforting. They look a little different depending on where you are, but they're always in the same formations. A lot of sailors use them to navigate."

"They sound nice," Steve said, lowering his head to the ground again, a slightly wistful tone to his voice.

Tony hesitated, then lowered the mental wall he constructed, just a little. He didn't know if Steve was listening, but he pictured the stars as well as he could. The North Star, ursa minor, Orion, Andromeda, and Draco, just for kicks. He pictured them on a clear night in Lucerne from before the War. Rhodey and Virgil fixing a meal while Giulietta curled against his side on the terrace as he told her about the constellations. He should take Pepper there when the War ended. She wouldn't be impressed, but she deserved to be pampered a little after all the grief he'd put her through. When the War ended...

Tony raised the wall again, hiding behind the mental construct and feeling too exposed. He wasn't a nostalgic soldier. There was no one waiting for him back home, and he had a heart full of problems to deal with if he managed to survive.

He looked over at Steve, who was staring at him, blue eyes wide and full of wonder. "They're beautiful," he said, his voice a bare whisper in Tony's mind.

"We can see them," Tony promised impulsively. "You can survive up there for a little bit, can't you? You don't look all that sickly now. I'll show them to you. Jarvis used to tell me the stories about them, so I know most of them."

"I'd like that," Steve said, though it sounded like he knew it was an empty promise.

"We got off on the wrong foot," Tony said with a grin. "I'm Tony. Tony Stark."

He held out his hand and Steve snorted, lowering his head so that Tony could touch his cheek. Tony did so, and allowed Steve's claw to touch his.

"I'm-" Red, white, blue - art and a glowing light spoken of only in legends. The feeling of calm after the rain and the stubborn of a rock that refused to move. Stars were part of Steve's dragon name, but he'd never seen them. Tony resolved to make that a promise he wouldn't break.

"I'll stick with Steve," Tony said, patting Steve's arm. "But it's nice to meet you when you're not trying to kill me."

Steve snorted softly, a small puff of smoke coming from his nose. "Go to sleep, Tony," Steve said.

Now warm and surprisingly comfortable, Tony did so easily.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Mem: I did say there would be cuddles. The day I resist cuddles will be the day you know I've been taken over by a Skrull.


	2. Chapter Two

Tony woke up feeling safe and warm, and he blinked open his eyes, only just stopping himself from stretching when he realized _why_ he was warm. He was surrounded by a massive dragon.

Steve's tail was wrapped around his middle, not tightly, but casually possessive. Behind Tony was Steve's flank, and if he listened closely, he could hear Steve's heart beat as the dragon's chest rose and fell. Steve's head was in Tony's lap, which Tony didn't remember happening. Nor did he remember placing a hand protectively between Steve's horns.

It wasn't the worst way to wake up, Tony reflected. In fact, it was rather pleasant. Carefully, he started to pet Steve's head. Steve didn't wake, but there was a low grumbling sound that wasn't unlike a purr.

"You complement each other."

"Pardon?" Tony looked up to see Wanda watching the two of them as she perched on the railing.

"Your souls," she said. "They compliment each other well."

"I don't believe in souls or magic," Tony said, remembering at the last second to keep his voice down.

"As I said, it is not necessary that you do," Wanda replied. There was a general air of mystery around her that unnerved Tony just a little. "Your future is shrouded in calamity, Tony Stark."

"That... doesn't sound good," Tony said, knowing too well how Hydra was particularly adept at finding or making weapons that could change the tide of the War. If they were still refining the ZEMO chemical, he could bet a dragon would be very useful to them, and the thought made Tony sick. "You see the future, supposedly. What can I do to change it?"

"Nothing," Wanda said. "But know it is not your fault. You are only the warning."

"So that's it? Don't kill the messenger but it's all doom and gloom?" Tony asked incredulously. "No offense, Ma'am, but I'll make my own destiny if those are your predictions."

Wanda's nostrils flared in what Tony had learned was the dragon's smile. Her wings flared out behind her, but not to intimidate. Quietly, he was thankful for the dragon's telepathic natures, if just because it made reading their body language easier.

"A sacrifice could mitigate the damage, but the cost will be high," she said ever cryptically.

"What kind of sacrifice?" Tony asked skeptically, thinking back to the Greeks and other ancient religions. He didn't think the dragons were the sort to sacrifice cows or goats.

"One that could balance out the chaos to come," she said. "Take care of Steve. He is important to all of us."

With that, she lifted off and flew to what Tony thought was the east. She glided with the now bright moss dancing off her wings.

Tony contemplated how the moss worked while petting Steve. Sharon had said it was magic, but there had to be a scientific reason for how it could give off light for a certain time, then emit a paler glow.

He discarded several theories and resolved to get Rhodey's more expert opinion when basic needs became pressing. This left him with an entirely different problem: How to wake a dragon.

Tony finally decided on rubbing Steve's cheek as the safest approach to avoid getting flamed. He started to rub, then poked the dragon a few times.

A very grumpy dragon opened one eye to glare at him. "Go away," Steve said, closing his eye again.

"Kind of hard when you've got me pinned like this, but that was the general idea. I've got to go to the bathroom," Tony replied mildly.

Steve let out a puff of smoke and slowly uncurled himself from around Tony. In the moss's version of daylight it wasn't as cold up here, but Tony found himself missing the dragon's bulk regardless.

Steve stretched, arching his back like a cat and hissing his tongue out briefly. Then he shook himself like a dog and Tony ducked under a wayward tail to keep from getting thwapped. Tony stepped back after that.

"Happy now?" Steve asked, sounding anything but from the tone of his mental voice.

"Would be if you could point me in the direction of the ground since I don't think I'm brave enough to try dragon bathrooms," Tony replied as he bent down to pick up his guns and put on the holster.

Just his luck, Steve was turning out to be the cheekiest dragon of them all, because he pointed his tail over the railing as he continued to stretch.

"Haha," Tony said, crossing his arms. "You should take this show on the road. You'd make hundreds as a comedian."

"Hundreds of what?" Steve asked, confusion making him grumpier.

"Never mind," Tony said, waving it off. "Can you tell me how to get down without killing myself?"

In response, Steve just lowered his head in a position that reminded him of Peggy yesterday. "I can walk and get down myself," Tony said mildly. It didn't quite sit right with him, needing to be flown everywhere.

"You'll stop complaining faster," Steve said, motioning impatiently with his wings.

As long as it wasn't about _Tony's_ convenience, he supposed. Tony snorted, then climbed over Steve's neck and settled between the spikes, because the need was getting rather pressing.

Steve's lift off was just as startling as Peggy's, but this time Tony was prepared for it. They glided down at a lazy pace that woke Tony up better than a splash of water on his face.

He was almost sorry when it was over. At least he was fairly used to living in the wilderness, so finding a proper bush wouldn't be too hard. Not pleasant, but not too hard. Except that as he dismounted and tried to walk away, Steve followed him.

"If I promise to come back in ten minutes, will you stop following me?" Tony asked conversationally. He could understand paranoia, but this was a bit ridiculous.

"You could sneak off," Steve said, though Tony could sense a thread of curiosity in Steve's words that Tony didn't quite understand.

"Then turn your back," Tony said. "You could still hear me get away. You could probably hear me thinking about it if I tried."

"But..." Steve said.

And then Tony understood. Steve was curious about... human things. Tony fought down a blush, because he really had no shame when it came to sex, but going to the bathroom was different. "It's, ah, not polite in many human societies to look," Tony said, reminding himself that this was like any of the new cultures he had visited in his travels, and even some of those had different meanings of the word 'privacy'.

"Oh," Steve said, a little startled. "Could you at least tell me about the metal in your chest? Does it hurt?"

"How did you know about that," Tony asked, covering his heart protectively.

"Sharon mentioned it. Is that private as well?"

"Yes," Tony said, his voice tight. It figured that dragons would be gossips. "It's... It'd be very dangerous for me, if word got out about it."

Steve's tail flicked around Tony's feet and he was surprised by the protective feeling he got from the dragon. "Not here, they won't."

"I... thanks," Tony said, unsure of where they stood on the whole trust issue if Steve was feeling that protective.

Steve's tail uncurled and he turned around then, letting Tony do his business and wash up in a small stream nearby. Tony could sense a bit of disappointment, especially since Peggy and Sharon had apparently been quite free with details of his heart pump, but he ignored it.

"Dragons aren't much for privacy, are they?" Tony asked when he was finished.

"It's a strange word," Steve said. There was a dragon name-feeling that Tony decided to automatically translate for his own sanity to 'Peggy'. "Peggy said you mentioned the term earlier, but it's... odd. Why do you need secrets?"

"I suppose privacy would take on different meanings for a telepathic society," Tony said, more to himself than to Steve. "Because there are people who would hurt us if we didn't keep them."

"That's terrible," Steve said.

Tony just shrugged. "That's humanity for you. I do need to get back to the wall and find a way out though. They need all the help they can get out there."

"Going back to your army?" Steve said, his wings fanning out behind him. This time, Tony got the impression it was meant to be intimidating. It was pretty effective too.

" _I'm_ not the one with the army up there," Tony said defensively.

"No, but there is one you report to. Will you tell them about this place, or is that one of your secrets?" Steve asked.

That was a good question. Fury would hound him trying to find out what Tony knew, and there were plenty of things down here that would help with the war effort. Tony wasn't sure the dragons were safer with Uncle Sam than they were with Hydra, however. "I won't tell anyone what I've seen down here, I promise," Tony said finally. "This place really is better off a secret."

"And why should I trust that promise?" Steve asked.

"Because I don't trust the majority of humans any more than you do," Tony said shrewdly. "Besides, are you just going to keep me a prisoner here for the rest of my life?"

He felt the shame and guilt rolling off Steve. "I... alright. I'll take you to the wall. But can you get back out the way you came? The earth trembled before you appeared. That's why I was at the gate to check."

"It was a cave-in, but I have a suit," Tony admitted, imagining the armor in his mind's eye for Steve's benefit. "I can use it to try to dig myself out. It may take me a few days to get through."

"I'll have someone posted to take you back to the city," Steve said, though Tony was under the impression Steve would be doing most of the watching himself.

He nodded, accepting the terms. "Then what say you to some breakfast and then heading out to get started?"

"Do you like fresh basilisk with herbs?" Steve said, regaining some of his humor.

"I'll stick with the herbs," Tony said, trying not to be intrigued by the name of the creature. He really didn't need his digestive track being turned to stone.

Breakfast was a much more pleasant affair. Peggy had kept her promise about getting more vegetables and Tony was used to rationing, so having no meat on the table wasn't a hardship. After breakfast, Steve took him to the cave and stood guard as Tony went back to find his armor. Tony was a little glad the cave was too small for Steve to fit into, because the walk back was the most private his thoughts had been since he met the dragons and it was no small relief to be alone. Not that he was trying to _hide_ anything from them, but something like his father and the War, those were personal. Private in ways that felt too vulnerable for someone he just met to see.

Traveling back down the wall of murals was less interesting the second time around, even though he had a better light source than his flashlight with a moss lamp he had rigged up with Sharon. He ignored most of the murals, knowing that they would be better explained by the dragons themselves. The thought of that niggled at him, but it was quickly pushed away as he reveled in being by himself. It was also a much more pleasant journey without having to worry about his ankle or his ribs.

It was shorter than he remembered, but at least the suit didn't look any worse for wear. Getting it on again was a pain in the ass, but doable. He missed Jarvis lecturing him or Rhodey briefing him as it went on. The new suit was lighter and smaller, much more advanced after he got the orichalcum, and looking up at the fallen rocks, Tony couldn't tell if that was a curse or a blessing in his plans to escape this place. Making sure the orichalcum was secure, Tony set about creating a path.

It was slow going, especially considering that he didn't want to bring the rocks down on him by moving the wrong one, but he felt like he had made progress. By the time his stomach reminded him of lunch, he'd cleared a small section away, stacking the excess rocks carefully to the side. He didn't notice they were hiding the murals.

He debated getting out of the suit to find Steve again, but it was more effort than he wanted to get out and in by himself, so he figured he'd wait until he was done for the day. The helmet was easy enough to take off for eating. He didn't waste the fuel in the jet packs to get out, opting instead to walk it. At least this time Steve would hear him coming.

He realized his mistake the moment he walked out and heard a loud roar. He didn't even have a chance to fire this time, finding himself being pinned to the ground with a giant claw being pressed against the thin metal next to his throat. "Where is Tony Stark?" Steve demanded, his voice sounding farther away than he was. Tony was surprised to hear more worry than suspicion in Steve's mental voice.

"Hey, big guy," Tony said, not moving no matter how his instincts yelled at him for having a giant monster pinning him down. "It's just me in here. I showed you the suit, remember? Are you going to make a habit of attacking me when I come out? Because it'd be nice to be prepared for it, should that be the case."

"Tony?" Steve said, his eyes widening. He didn't let Tony up though, and Tony got a very faint sense of unease coming from the dragon. "I can't... I can't sense you in there. Prove you're him."

"You have to let me up first," Tony said. He received a draconic glare in return. "Okay, then. There's a latch just under the helmet. Reach under with your claw until you find it and for God's sake, be careful."

Tony waited tensely while Steve lifted a claw, swallowing as it traced under his jaw with a surprising amount of gentleness. The helmet popped off with a bit more pressure, letting Tony glare right back up at Steve. "Can you let me up now?" Tony asked pointedly.

Steve got off him, but cautiously, like he still wasn't convinced that Tony was telling the truth. "I couldn't sense you in there," Steve said.

Tony shrugged as much as the suit let him. "I didn't realize it would do that. And I could hear you just fine?" Tony said, inspecting the helmet to make sure it wasn't damaged when Steve had pulled it off. "If metal makes it harder for you to heal, maybe it also blocks your telepathic abilities?" Though that didn't explain how Tony had heard him. Perhaps it was a one way blockage? Strange.

"It's unnerving," Steve said, wings agitatedly flickering behind him.

"You can sense me now though, can't you?"

"It's... muffled," Steve said, finally settling his wings, but not looking happy for it.

Tony pulled off one of the gauntlets, then laid a careful hand on Steve's shoulder joint. "How 'bout now?"

Steve let out a low rumble. It didn't sound fully pleased, but it did sound better. "Uh, sorry for attacking you. Again," Steve said sheepishly.

"That one was my fault," Tony said with a shrug. "I should have at least taken off the helmet."

"What does it do?" Steve asked, looking hesitantly curious so long as Tony kept his hand in place.

"It's the armor," Tony replied. "It protects me in the War."

"Do all humans wear such things?"

"Only me and Rhodey. Well, Pepper might have her own soon too. Hydra had some for a while, but I destroyed them," Tony said, pushing away the dark memories of it.

"That's... reassuring," Steve said, though he didn't sound very sure. "But why would a hydra need armor like that?"

"Not a monster hydra. It's a group of humans, top-side. A very bad group," Tony said. He shook his head, trying to clear his head. None of these were good memories. "They're the ones I'm trying to stop from finding this place."

Steve quirked his wing in agreement and Tony was surprised to find his words taken at face value. Then again, if Steve had seen into his mind while he'd been thinking of Hydra the first time, he might have seen some of what they were capable of.

"They don't sound very nice," a third voice said.

Tony looked up to see the brown dragon from yesterday, Sam. He was holding a wooden basket that reminded Tony of the murals outside the gate, finely crafted with a myriad of colors. He hadn't been at dinner last night, so Tony assumed he must have been somewhere off with Steve.

"They aren't," Tony said, watching the dragon land. For such large creatures, dragons were some of the most graceful he had ever seen. Tony wasn't a biologist, but he didn't think he would ever get tired of watching them move.

"They've done a lot of terrible things to other humans," Tony continued, trying _not_ to think of the two survivors from the concentration camps and their stories that he heard while helping them into neutral territory. Not for the sake of hiding it from the dragons, but because there was only so much horror that even Tony could take, and the memory of the gold star the young girl had had to wear and the pink triangle that the man had been forced to wear was a chilling reminder of what could happen everywhere if the United Nations failed. "I don't want to think about them ever finding this place."

The two dragons may have gotten a glimpse, because Tony found a hesitant tail being wrapped around him. He looked up to see an angry Steve, but for once Steve's anger wasn't directed at him. "How can humans do such things to one another?" he asked.

He was in the suit, so he couldn't actually feel the tail around his waist. He could feel it if he leaned against Steve's flank though, resting his head against the soft dragon scales. And in that moment, the exhaustion that hit him made him sorely tempted to try it. Tony didn't, however, taking off the other gauntlet as he tried to push all thoughts of the War away. "I don't know," Tony answered finally, pulling away from Steve's tail so he could get the rest of the armor off. Lunch today seemed better off without the cold reminder of his responsibilities and the War.

By the time he got the rest of it off, Steve and Sam were tangled together. Steve's wings were flickering in agitation as Sam rubbed his cheek against Steve's to calm him down. Tony felt irrationally jealous of the contact, and he couldn't say why.

It made him miss Rhodey.

Sam looked over at him, slowly detangling himself from Steve as he made his way to Tony. "We met briefly before, but I'm-" Crimson, white, onyx. Soaring phoenix in the sky. Flexible as branches swaying in the wind, but sturdy as the roots buried deep in the ground. "But Peggy told me to say my name is Sam."

"Tony Stark," Tony said, reaching out for the customary cheek greeting. He was surprised when Sam caught Tony's hand carefully in his claw and brought it to his mouth, deft tongue flickering across his fingers.

Steve looked at them both curiously. "What are you doing?"

"Isn't that the human custom?" Sam asked. "Did I get it wrong? Peggy said the hand greeting was what humans did."

Tony let out a loud guffaw, laughing until he was doubled over. He was sure Steve and Sam were exchanging worried glances, but after everything and the War... It felt like it had been ages since he'd laughed like this, even before he was involved in the war effort. He may have been laughing too hard, but he had needed it. Dear Lord, he had needed that.

"Sorry," Tony said after he'd calmed down. "I guess I deserved that one. That sort of greeting usually happens when a man is courting someone."

Sam's nostrils flared in open amusement. "And I take it Peggy knows this?"

"I suppose he's pretty enough for a human," Steve said. "But I still question your choice in partners, Sam."

Sam whacked Steve lightly on the shoulder with his tail. "If you two are going to tease me, I'll take back the lunch I packed."

Steve let out a puff of smoke that Tony guessed was a draconic sigh. "I suppose we can put off teasing you for food."

How strange life was. Tony had had many adventures in his life, but none of them ever quite prepared him for having a picnic with two dragons under the crust of the earth.

* * *

"So what do you do out here while I'm digging?" Tony asked the next day at lunch. This time Steve hadn't attacked him when he came out with the suit, so he figured he'd just keep it on.

Steve was lounging in the moss light, reminding Tony of a cat sunning itself. "I sometimes draw," Steve said. "Or go on patrol around the area to pick off any thing that might think humans look tasty."

"At least dragons have better taste in snacks, apparently," Tony said.

"Humans are too stringy."

Tony paused in eating the underworld equivalent of a mango. "You haven't actually...?"

Steve's nostrils flared. "No," he said to Tony's vast relief. "There are so few humans that come here, so only the elders may eat them."

"Now I know you're joshing me," Tony said, crossing his arms. The armor clanked as he did so, earning him a slightly disapproving stare from Steve. "You don't have to wait on me if you have other things to do. Or do you still not trust me?"

"My job is to protect the city," Steve said. "Right now, you're part of that city. I... don't know if I trust you just yet, but you don't feel like a bad human."

"From what I heard, neither did the other one," Tony said. It was probably not his best idea to remind Steve of all the reasons not to trust him, but Tony felt a little concerned about how trusting the dragons were. It was probably a side effect of telepathy, but it could be dangerous for them if other people wandered down here. He felt a surprising surge of protectiveness at the thought that left him a little speechless.

"The last human felt blank," Steve said, his tail curling tightly around him. "There was nothing where his mind should have been. You are guarded, but as long as you aren't in the suit, I can still sense you. He felt like a blank canvas, but with no potential beauty to make it gleam.

Tony considered ways to create that effect. Maybe a suit like his own? But surely the dragons would have known if it was a suit. Something small, perhaps? A mask could do it, but it'd have to be an extraordinarily well constructed mask. Or perhaps not, given how often humans ended up down here.

He shook his head. This conversation was getting too depressing. "You said you draw?" Tony tried to picture how that worked with claws.

Steve's nostrils flared and he seized on the new topic. "I like art," Steve admitted shyly. "When I was young, I was very small and sick a lot of the time. It was something I could do that made my mother happy."

Tony tried to actually picture a mental image of a baby dragon drawing for his mother, and the image was charming. "Can I see your art?" Tony asked.

He could feel Steve's hesitation, though it was weaker with the suit on. "Could you... if we're going to talk, could you take the suit off?" Steve asked.

Tony pulled the release catch, letting the suit open up so he could step out. It'd be a pain to get on again, but Steve's relief came through clearly after that. Maybe he should just leave the suit behind the gate from now on. "It bothers you that much?" Tony asked.

"It... reminds me of Johann," Steve said. "The blankness. I don't feel anything from you when you're in there, and only a little when you take off the helmet."

That explained a few things. Tony made a mental note to always take his helmet off if he ever did bring the suit back out. "It was a little muffled, but I could hear you yelling while I had the suit on. I could still hear you, and some of your feelings."

"The metal doesn't harm you," Steve said. "It might not block it completely for you."

"Huh," Tony said, pushing aside thoughts of experiments to see the limits of draconic telepathy. He touched Steve's wing for added measure, since touch made the telepathy stronger from what Tony could tell. While he wasn't all that comfortable sharing his thoughts, the dragons seemed to hear the top ones regardless. Besides, he'd woken up to Steve curled around him the past two days because he'd been too tired from digging to make a proper shelter. It wasn't like Steve was going to tell anyone his secrets. "Can I see your drawings now?" Tony asked.

Steve reached out to touch Tony's cheek, telegraphing the move so Tony wouldn't flinch. It was still taking some adjusting to, these casual intimacies. "Aright," Steve said, pulling out some sort of paper (it wasn't an animal skin, but the material didn't look like trees either. Tony decided to ask for some later for better analysis) from the basket. All thoughts of the material it was made from left Tony when he saw the drawings.

They were beautiful. It was simple line art with multicolored inks that spanned the whole page. The crystals on the cavern ceiling shone brilliantly in a way that made Tony feel warm just looking at it, with two dragons soaring on the last rays of the crystal's light. One was blue like Steve, the other was a shining silver.

"It's amazing," Tony said, looking up at Steve with an open smile.

Steve lowered his head to the ground, soft pleasure rolling off him in waves. "They're not that good," he said hesitantly.

"They're beautiful," Tony insisted. "Do you sell those?"

"Sell?" Steve raised his head and tilted it to the side in a motion that was almost human. "Oh, I see. We don't really 'sell' anything here. I draw because I like to make my friends happy."

Tony touched the dried ink reverently, tracing the fine lines of the blue dragon's tail. He could see all the inks in the basket, but no pens or quills, and those lines were too fine for a brush. How did...

Steve held up a claw, wiggling the sharp points. Now that Tony was looking, he could see the bits of ink along the edges where the claw met dragon scale. "You use your claws as a pen?"

"You use bird feathers or metal?" Steve asked, sounding particularly appalled about the latter.

"I suppose that must seem pretty strange," Tony said, hiding a grin.

Steve snorted, though his nostrils were flared in amusement. "I've got things I can do here," Steve said, going back to the original conversation. "Not bored. Besides, how would you get back to the city if no one was here?"

"I can fly too, so long as I have the suit," Tony said, though admittedly, he should be conserving the fuel. He could definitely take care of himself, however. Flying wasn't a problem, if need be.

"You can?" Steve asked, looking at the suit for the first time with interest rather than disdain.

That made something unfurl in Tony's chest and the need to show off became to much too resist. "Sure," Tony said, deciding not to care about the fuel. He could make sure only to use a little. Or just cross that bridge if he didn't have enough when he got there. "Head up to the ledge up there and I'll show you."

Now he got a sense of skeptical amusement from Steve, but the dragon did as told, launching himself with one leap. Tony reminded himself that he needed to get the armor back on if he wanted to impress anyone, and admiring the power of Steve's body wouldn't help him do that.

It was a few minutes before the armor clicked back into place and a lot of wiggling to get it done by himself. Tony made mental notes of how he could make the process faster the next time he was at the workshop, because while suiting up by himself was possible, it wasn't all that comfortable and he was far from a contortionist. He left the helmet off, figuring as long as he took it slow, he should be fine without it.

He looked up to find Steve stretched out on one of the highest rock formations, soaking up the light of the moss and generally pretending to ignore Tony. Emphasis on pretending, because Tony could definitely feel the curiosity rolling off of Steve even with the suit on.

Hiding a smirk, Tony slowly lifted off the ground. Steve gave up on all pretense of boredom, crawling up to the highest point of the ledge to meet Tony. "So you _can_ fly," Steve said, grudging wonder in his tone. "And you don't mind all that metal? Is it magic?"

"The metal doesn't bother me, and it's definitely not magic. This is all science," Tony said. Steve reached out a hesitant claw, which Tony touched with his gauntlet. He could feel Steve's awe and wonder, and it warmed something in his heart that Tony was sure had been cold since the War started.

"How well can you maneuver?" Steve asked, a thoughtful expression in his eyes as he watched their joined hands.

"Well enough to hit any Kraut plane," Tony said, deliberately thinking of walls to avoid letting the last screw-up that landed him here from slipping through. Steve didn't need to know about that one.

Steve made room for him on the ledge and Tony landed with a clunk. Before he knew it, Steve was back up in his space, sniffing at the metal joins. "Careful! The jets run hot," Tony said.

He nearly fell off the ledge when Steve touched his cheek, only Steve's wing stretched behind him, keeping him from falling over. "The exhaust doesn't bother you?" Tony asked, trying to look over his shoulder before he remembered his reduced visibility. 

"Dragons like warm things, and it's not too hot," Steve said, rubbing Tony's cheek as he stared into Tony's eyes. "Dance with me."

"What?" Tony asked. He knew there was a better reply to that, something more intelligent or wittier, but he couldn't think of anything under the earnest blue of Steve's gaze.

"Dance with me," Steve repeated, wings fluttering shyly. Then he added, "Please? You can fly, can't you? So you can dance."

"I..." Tony only just remembered taking a step back would let him fall off a cliff. "There's a war up top," Tony said, shaking his head. "I should be getting back to it, or I could return only to find my country destroyed. I need to save fuel."

"I think we can find you some more fuel," Steve said, looking at the engine as he sniffed at it again. "And the war on top sounds important, but even during the dragon wars, there was always dancing. Sometimes more, in times of hardship."

Tony shook his head, ducking under Steve's wing as he flew back down to the ground. "I've run away from my responsibilities enough in my life."

"That doesn't mean you have to be unhappy all the time," Steve said, his mental voice gentle.

Tony was glad of the armor, because it hid the fact he tensed. "It's war," he said, looking at the gate even though he didn't see it. He saw the dead staring up at him, the experiments of Hydra and the terror of the Japanese in China and Korea. He'd seen action on all fronts thanks to Fury's secret missions, and what he'd seen...

He jumped, raising his hand to fire the repulsors. "Easy," Steve said, rubbing his cheek against Tony's, the touch that set Tony off and startled him, but now Steve was sending calming thoughts that were amplified by the touch.

Tony gasped, pushing his arm down as he tried to grasp at the breath that remained so elusive. He wanted to push the goddamned dragon away, but the sense of calming redoubled and he was able to breathe a little easier for it.

That didn't mean he wasn't resentful for the help.

"I'm sorry," Steve said, fanning his wings around Tony as if to protect him. "I didn't-"

"I don't need protection," Tony gritted out.

Steve immediately backed off and Tony missed the warmth against his cheek and the calming caress against his thoughts. He thought of walls, cold and steel reaching as high as the cavern ceiling. Then he picked up his helmet and walked towards the gate.

"I'm sorry," Steve said, his head low to the ground. "I never meant to startle you."

"You could have gotten yourself killed," Tony muttered, leaving the dragon behind to retreat past the gate. He needed to get back to work. The war waits for no man.

Peggy was there when he came out for dinner. He sensed faint disapproval from her, but he got the feeling it was for both him and Steve. He didn't back down, however, and he could hear her sigh. "Come on," Peggy said, greeting him with a touch to his cheek that she made sure he saw coming. He returned it grudgingly. "At least one of you is through sulking for the night..."

"Adventurers don't sulk, Ma'am," he said, picking up the remainder of his and Steve's lunch.

"But you're not an adventurer any longer," Peggy said, brushing her wing against his shoulder. "You're a solider, all set for war."

"I've never been a soldier, Peggy. At least, never one that was any damn good," Tony said, feeling the weariness set over his shoulders like the world on Atlas's shoulders.

"Then why do you act like one?" she asked, lowering her head down so that he could mount.

"Because the War doesn't leave room for much else," he said simply.

The rest of the trip back to the city was quiet. Tony didn't feel like talking and Peggy didn't push him. Only the breeze filled Tony's thoughts as he tried to push away all the other things.

He was jolted out of his melancholy as they landed. He started to dismount, but was stopped by Peggy's wing. "You've been good for him," she said. "Before you came, he was drifting. He threw himself into protecting the city, because he feels like he failed to save- " Silver, red, and black. Radiating warmth like the pits of lava in the middle of the dragon house, comfort and protection of the forest. The darkness of a crystal-less night, dancing and salty wit.

"I haven't really done anything," Tony replied.

"You don't have to," Peggy said. "Just be there. He's helping you as well."

"I don't need to be helped," Tony snapped, getting around her wing to go to the hall for supper.

He didn't stay for the stories that night, heading to the roof automatically. It wasn't until he realized how cold it was without the moss's light that he remembered he needed to make a shelter on the ground.

He looked at the dais he and Steve had been on, the pump keeping his heart beating feeling heavier as the moment went on. Touching and sharing was second nature to the dragons. He knew better than to snap like that when it came to cultural differences. Just because he was feeling jumpy didn't mean he should have yelled at Steve. They had all been pretty good at waiting until he was watching to touch him, but Steve had obviously gotten distressed when Tony had. If he'd just kept up higher walls instead of letting himself become morose...

He obviously wasn't getting a body warmer tonight, regardless. Tony turned to the door to make his way down, but he was surprised to find Steve in the doorway.

"Hi," Steve said, his wings folded tightly against his body.

"Hi," Tony replied, awkwardly shifting on his feet. "About earlier-"

"I'm sorry," Steve said. "You were right. I wasn't thinking, and I know how jumpy you are. I should have thought before startling you."

Tony rubbed his forehead. "I... it's alright. I shouldn't have snapped. I really don't mind, as long as I can see you coming." He could brace the walls if he had warning, and that was about as good as he was getting as long as he stayed with telepathic dragons.

Steve nodded, wings relaxing. "Are you going down to build a shelter now?" he asked.

Tony would be alone in the shelter. He wouldn't have to worry about dragons hearing his thoughts. It was better than having a warm body to lean up against, wasn't it?

Then again, Tony had never been too fond of sleeping on the ground. "Actually," he said with a faux yawn. "I'm feeling a bit more tired than I thought. Now that you're here, we could... though I don't want to keep you, going to bed early if you've already got plans."

"I'm tired as well," Steve said, and if he wasn't going to call Tony on his bluff, then Tony wasn't going to say a word either. Steve stretched, then walked over to the dais, wing up in an open invitation.

Tony slipped under it, making himself comfortable against Steve's flank. Steve didn't even bother to wait until they were both sleeping this time to wrap his tail around Tony's waist.

"Tony?"

"Yeah?" Tony looked up. Steve was looking at him, and he slowly moved forward, telegraphing his movements. Tony nodded, then Steve moved closer, his cheek brushing against Tony's.

It was intimate. More intimate than Tony would have guessed, especially with Steve's feelings rolling off and surrounding Tony. There was guilt and affection there, along with warm comfort that made Tony wonder how necessary his walls really were. "You're so guarded," Steve said, sorrow mixing in with the emotions.

Tony closed his eyes for a moment, then opened them as he pulled away. He caught a faint sense of disappointment, but he caught Steve's head gently, rubbing the dragon's cheeks with both hands then scratching behind the horn. The disappointment was quick to disappear, and Steve closed his eyes in pleasure. "I'm sorry," Tony said. "That's just how we humans are. We're not... we're not that open or honest."

Steve sighed, pushing against Tony's hands like a cat. "It doesn't sound very nice up there," Steve said wistfully.

"There's some good things," Tony replied, thinking back to the evenings with the others, of Pepper's laugh, Rhodey's quiet smile, and Jarvis's arm around his shoulder. The warm fire, the taste of coffee on a cold winter day and M&Ms that the soldiers would share with them, and the smell of irises in the spring that always reminded him of his mother. His workshop, one of the few places he actually felt at home, where he could retreat when SI was too busy and chaotically making instruments of war that would only add to the body count.

"Those feel nice," Steve said, starting to tug his head away.

"Where are you going?" Tony asked in amusement.

"To bed," Steve said, motioning to the end of the dais where he usually put his head.

"You've ended up with your head in my lap the past few days, or have you been too sleepy in the morning to realize that? You might as well get comfortable now," Tony said.

"I..." Steve said, slight embarrassment coloring his tone. Tony hid a smile. The dragon really had been half asleep when Tony poked him awake every morning. "Alright."

Neither of them slept for a few hours after that, but Tony found he didn't mind. He told Steve about the good things the upper world had to offer and gleaned information about the dragons from Steve's stories. He felt relaxed, more so than he had since the start of the War. He fell asleep petting Steve, dreaming of home.

* * *

The next night Tony found himself in a dark cave. It was cold - bitterly cold. It surprised Tony since all the caves have been mostly warm so far. There was a moss lamp up ahead that Tony hurried towards in hopes of warmth, surprised to see another human. Except when he drew closer, he realized it wasn't human. It was a monster in a human's shape.

Tony felt fear rush through him at the sight of the red skull-like face. He didn't believe in religion, but the man looked devilish in the moss's light. He was dark and terrifying in ways that Tony didn't understand, and he was shooting at two dragons. One silver and the other...

Steve!

The fight was vicious. The devil man had a gun and deadly accuracy that was only foiled by the dragons' agility in the air. But there wasn't enough room to maneuver, and it was too cold for dragon fire. Without their best weapon they had to chase a small target with a deadly gun, and both of the dragons were bleeding heavily. Steve had a hole in his wing that made every movement agony. The devil man aimed for Steve, but before Tony could yell the silver dragon barreled into the devil man. The gun went off and he could hear the dragon scream as they tumbled precariously close to the edge of the abyss.

Steve struggled to stand, bleeding onto the cold ground. The dragon name-feeling - Silver, red, and black. Radiating warmth like the pits of lava in the middle of the dragon house, comfort and protection of the forest. The darkness of a crystal-less night, dancing, and salty wit. It resonated in the cavern like a scream.

The silver dragon cried out again as the devil man shot him, the bullet tearing the joint in his left wing apart. They both fell into the abyss, but the silver dragon managed to claw onto the rocky wall. Steve pushed himself to the edge, barely able to crawl his way over. Tony heard the same name-feeling, then Steve's. Fear of falling from the silver dragon, fear of not getting there in time Steve. The rocks were crumbling and the silver dragon...

Steve got to the edge just in time to see the silver dragon fall, the terrible fear cutting off with a suddenness that made Tony gasp and shiver uncontrollably. All emotion from the silver dragon was gone, leaving a deep hole that was even more bottomless than the abyss.

Loss. Helpless. Grief. Guilt. Gone. _No._

"Steve!" Tony called out, unable to move or help with his heart stuck in his throat. He focused on Steve's name-feeling as much as he could, but it kept slipping through his mind. "Steve!"

Tony woke up with a gasp, pump working overtime to regulate his heart. It was hard to see, but he could feel Steve trembling around him. "Steve," Tony said, petting Steve's head gently before thinking better of it and rubbing his cheeks. "Steve, come on, buddy. It's a dream. Wake up."

Steve started awake, going completely still in Tony's arms. "It's okay," Tony said, even though it wasn't. It was a lie. Nothing would be okay after a dream like that. "You're okay. It was a dream."

When Steve didn't respond, Tony carefully lowered his mental walls and thought of soothing things. Rhodey and Jarvis playing backgammon and bickering quietly. Pepper and her notebook. Being down in the workshop with no responsibilities, only him and the suit or whatever new idea caught his fancy. His mother's perfume. Watching the calm ocean on the Dorma.

Steve slowly relaxed enough that Tony could take a break from rubbing Steve's cheeks to wipe at his own eyes. Those were Steve's feelings, not _his_ for Christ's sake. He hid that thought away, however, knowing it would only serve to make Steve feel guilty.

"You okay?" Tony asked.

"It's an old dream," Steve said, dodging the question.

Tony let it slide. "The other dragon..."

"He... He liked the human name Bucky, even though Johann said it was too 'American'," Steve replied. "He and Peggy were always the best dancers. But he tried to teach me, even when I was small and sick when I was little, so that I could ask Peggy to dance with me. He was... He was my best friend."

Tony stayed quiet, letting Steve talk. Steve was obviously close to both Sam and Peggy (and apparently a little sweet on the latter at one time), but this sounded deeper. Relationships in dragon society weren't valued on type as far as Tony could tell from the stories. Humans valued romantic love, family, and friendship, whereas dragons valued depth and time. 'Bucky' seemed to have the strongest connection to Steve that Tony had ever seen.

"Tomorrow," Tony said a while later, when Steve was calmer and the trembling had stopped, "Or today, if it's that late, how about you show me what he taught you?"

"Tony?"

"Unless you're taking back your offer to dance with me?"

Steve moved closer, rubbing his cheek against Tony's. "I thought you couldn't waste the time?" Steve said, laying his head back in Tony's lap.

"I heard someone say that dragons dance even in war. And I remembered humans do a lot of dancing during it too," Tony said as he started to pet Steve's head again. The grief started to subside little by little, but it never went away either now that Tony could identify the emotion. It settled into a dull ache that Tony was very familiar with.

"That so?" Steve asked.

"That's what they tell me," Tony said. "Now go back to sleep, wise guy."

"Tony..." Steve said, his voice soft. "Thank you."

Tony didn't reply, but kept petting Steve. Neither of them went back to sleep, but the company kept the ache from haunting them too badly.

* * *

Tony was not an overly vain man. When Gialetta was around, he made an effort to look properly dashing, but Rhodey and Pepper had seen him with a bush instead of a beard a few times when they'd been on the run.

If he were going _dancing_ today though, he needed to look presentable. He asked Sam to show him to one of the baths that morning, then proceeded to ban all the dragons from entering until he was done. He wasn't a modest man by nature either, but he could do without being stared at like a science project while he was trying to get clean.

He washed his clothes first, setting them on the hot stones to dry, then himself. Surprisingly, the water of the massive bath (swimming pool more like, but Tony was admittedly smaller than a dragon) was only warm and not scaldingly hot. He suspected Peggy and Sam had a hand in that, but he refused to ask them how since he also suspected they'd take great delight in informing him that it was magic.

He had his kit from the survival pack (the one thing he insisted went in there was a razor, and maybe what he said about not being overly vain was only half true, but razors were very useful things and Rhodey relented) that he'd brought with him after the first day back from the gate. It was a short matter to sharpen the blade, then carefully trim and shape the beard. It was a bit hit and miss without a proper mirror, but the water reflected well enough in the light and he only nicked himself twice. Not that Steve would probably know the difference between a well-kept goatee and bush, but Tony was damned if he went out dancing without looking his best under the circumstances.

Okay, so he was vain, but only if you talked to Pepper or Rhodey.

His clothes dried quickly in the heat, and soon enough even Jarvis would consider him presentable. He brushed himself off, looked in the water-mirror one last time as he tried to comb his hair into something manageable, then left the bath.

Peggy and Sharon were waiting for him when he came out, their necks tangled together and curled up to each other. Peggy's wings draped protectively over Sharon, and Sharon looked up at Peggy as if the moon itself hung on her shoulders. Not that the dragons had ever seen the moon. It wasn't hard to see how much they adored each other, and Sam had told him their bond was one of the strongest in the city. "You two cozy over there?" he asked.

When they looked up at him, Tony got the impression they were distinctly less impressed with him than he felt they should be. "Is that all?" Sharon asked. "I thought you were in there to change your face!"

"He's not like the last human, Sharon," Peggy said.

Tony shuddered at the mention of the last human, thinking back to Steve's nightmare. "What you see is what you get, I'm afraid."

"How dull," Sharon said, eyes twinkling teasingly. She rubbed her cheek against Peggy's, closing her eyes in contentment.

"You two are really close," Tony said again, this time more thoughtfully.

"We're bonded," Peggy replied. "As she is my sister, we've always been bonded. It makes us closer in our thoughts."

"All families bond like that?" Tony asked, feeling a little disturbed by the notion.

"Most do," Peggy answered. "There are a few that don't, but most of the time families are very close. But you can bond with others outside of your family too."

"Were Steve and Bucky bonded?"

"Steve told you that name, didn't he? Yes," Peggy said, huffing softly when Sharon pressed into her side. "They were as close as brothers. He took Bucky's loss very hard. We've been worried."

"It'll be good to see him dancing again," Sharon said, her wings fluttering in excitement and hope.

"It has been a while. Are you sure you can keep up, Tony?"

"I'll do my best to try, but I may have the advantage if he's out of practice," Tony said, wondering at how his name sounded so flat when the dragons said it. He'd long since taken to translating the dragon names in his head, but now his name felt empty and hollow compared to theirs.

"Come on then. Sam and Steve are waiting already," Peggy said.

"Is _everyone_ going to come watch me make a fool of myself?" Tony asked, regretting turning Steve down that first time. At least then it would have been private.

"It's not every day we get to see a human dance!" Sharon said, laughing at his sigh.

He rode Sharon this time to go to the meadow by the gate, watching Peggy glide gracefully in front of them. It was still a thrill flying on a dragon, but Tony found it wasn't the same without Steve. Maybe Sharon was going a little slower, or Tony had gotten used to the little tricks Steve pulled to show off once Tony found some rope to keep himself in place. Maybe that's what he was missing.

They landed in time to see what Sharon assured him was a mock fight between Steve and Sam. It was terrifying watching the dragons go at it. It wasn't like watching a boxing match where Tony could gauge the power behind every punch. There were claws involved and both of them were already bleeding.

Steve dove down onto Sam's back, claws ripping into his shoulders. In return Sam folded his wings and let them drop at least fifty feet, spinning mid air to throw Steve off. Sam went in, fangs bared at Steve's neck.

"Tony."

Tony started, looking up to see Peggy in front of him. She touched his cheek comfortingly, and Sharon's wing came up to cover him and block the view.

"They're both fine," Peggy said.

"They're bleeding pretty badly," Tony replied.

"Easy to fix," Sharon said, her voice soft. "I could do it all, no problem. No reason to call a proper healer."

Tony flinched at the loud thump he couldn't see. He supposed part of his problem was that the fighting looked too real, and he'd seen so much fighting recently that the dragons had been a bit of a relief. Still, hearing Steve's smug voice say "Got you," relaxed something in Tony. He could now feel both Sam and Steve as a presence in his mind, and he wondered if the dragons built up their own mental walls for fighting.

Sharon's wing pulled back so that he could see Sam on his back with Steve lying triumphantly on his stomach. Both of their nostrils were flared in the dragon smile, and now Tony could read a playfulness to their posture that the aerial flight hadn't allowed.

"I give," Sam said, and Steve rolled off him. "Damn, I thought you were gonna let me win that one."

"If you two boys are finished, we can have lunch while you patch up so the human can stop fretting," Peggy said as she started to set out the basket she had brought with her.

"The human, huh?" Sam said, and strangely enough Tony got the impression Steve was embarrassed as he helped Sam up.

He started a fire (with the help of Peggy's fire-breathing) to cook some of the meat just to see the other's reactions to it. Tony watched Steve and Sam as he helped spread out a lunch of meat for the dragons and vegetables for himself. They were using the same energy transference technique as Sharon had used on him.

"It's called magic," Sharon said cheerfully, either sensing or guessing this thoughts.

He resisted the urge to stick his tongue out at her, but only just.

When Steve and Sam were finished, they started snuggling against each other to the point where Tony wondered how he'd ever thought that they were actually fighting. It made something unpleasant churn in his gut that he tried to ignore.

"I don't understand this feeling of yours," Peggy said, her mental voice soft enough that Sharon didn't look up from watching the meat cook with a rapt curiosity.

Tony tensed his shoulders. "I was trying to hide that."

"Don't worry," Peggy said. "It's far enough behind your walls I only noticed it because I'm close. I can't sense the feeling itself, just the fact you are ashamed of it. What is it?"

"Jealousy," Tony said. Naming the emotion really didn't help his mood. "Don't dragons feel it too?"

"No. At least, not that I'm aware of. It's strange," Peggy said. "You are... angry at someone else's love or happiness?"

Tony sighed, putting his hands into his pockets. "It's not one of humanity's better emotions, I'll grant you," he said, staring into the fire. "It makes me miss my best friend."

Which was a lie. Maybe that's what it was at the start, but now... that was before the intimacy and the companionship that Tony wasn't even aware he needed. But he hid that thought deep, because Steve was a _dragon_ and Tony had to leave this place once he opened the crevasse he'd fallen into. He apparently needed to find someone to fall in bed with once he was back, if the slightest bit of intimacy turned his head.

"You try not to act on it," Peggy said approvingly.

"Doesn't always work, but I do try. I am, so to speak, only human," Tony said with a shrug. Jealousy, at least, had never been something he had to fight too hard.

"Alright," Sam said, startling Tony as he came closer. "How's the human supposed to fly?"

Tony looked him and Steve over carefully, not seeing a scratch on either of them. "I've got a suit that helps me fly. You saw it a few days ago," Tony said, fingers itching to make sure Steve was really okay because he remembered all too well the agony Steve had been in during the nightmare.

To his surprise (and secret pleasure), Steve came over to him. He made sure Tony was watching, then leaned down to rub against Tony's cheek with his own, reassuring Tony by letting him feel how okay the dragon was. He could feel the others' surprise as well, which Steve resolutely ignored.

Tony was more curious, however. He looked at the others, seeing Sharon and Sam exchanging worried looks, but Peggy nudging him towards the cave. She, at least, felt rather pleased. "Well, go put on the suit then. I haven't gotten to see it yet."

Tony nodded, slipping past the gate to where he had stored his armor as he used the moss lamp the dragons gave him to see. It was closer to where he'd been working to get free. Not so near that it could be crushed should something happen while he was away, but close enough he didn't have to go very far once he put the suit on, and after the last time he'd just taken to getting out of it before he went to lunch, contortions be damned.

He looked at the murals as he went, wondering again who had made them. The dragons never came out this far and Steve didn't even like sticking his head through the gate to yell at him if he was late for lunch or dinner. Perhaps they had been made before the dragons sealed themselves underground? But surely not even 'magical' dragon colors would still be this vivid from that long ago. Then he pushed that thought to the back of his mind, because if any of the dragons heard it, they would probably tell him it was magic.

He walked past the suit, going towards where he was working, ignoring the fact that Jarvis would have a fit if he knew Tony didn't even have a hard hat on. He put a hand on one of the bigger rocks, looking up at what he still had left to clear. The War was going on up there. He wasn't fool enough to think the world depended on his contributions, but if he could make a difference...

Tony sighed. One afternoon for himself wouldn't hurt, right?

He turned back to the suit, staring at it for a moment. It was made for war. It always had been. But he wondered for the first time, what if it had been made for flight? For exploring, and not for killing people? He shook his head and stepped into the suit. He was sweating by the time it wrapped around him, shielding him from the world, but Tony was just a little glad for it.

"Tony?" Steve called out, his mental voice feeling far away. "You coming out any time soon?"

"Yeah, yeah," Tony said, taking off the helmet. He set it to the side, then made his way back .

Three curious dragons were waiting when he finally made it to the gate. Steve, of course, had seen it before. Sam had too, but not seen how it could fly. The curiosity ended up being so strong that it was an almost palatable taste in his mouth.

"It muffles you," Peggy said, sounding skeptical.

"Can't help the metal," Tony said. "It's supposed to protect me. Remember the gun that I shot Steve with? The armor stops those."

"Are there many of these guns on the surface?" Sharon asked, distaste in her words.

"Yes," Tony said, trying not to think of how many his company made, or how necessary they were. "We humans war more frequently than dragons. Hazard of being more easily accessible to each other, I suppose."

"If this suit is supposed to fly, where are its wings?" Peggy asked, craning to get a better look at his back.

Before Tony could launch on a lecture on proper science, uplift, and aerodynamics of the suit, Sam interrupted. "It needs more color," he said critically, poking at the armor with his claw. "It's grey and dirty-looking."

"It _is_ made for war," Tony said. He should have known better than to expect dragons to be impressed. They still thought science was magic. "Too colorful and I'm just a flying target."

"I think it's pretty terrific," Steve said, earning him a place as Tony's favorite. "It lets humans fly."

"Let's see it then," Sam said cheerfully. "We were promised a dance!"

"Just make sure it's a slow dance," Tony said. "Without the helmet, I can't go too fast without blacking out."

"I suppose I can go easy on you," Steve said, motioning to the sky with his tail.

Tony started the jets, smirking at the dragon's surprise as he lifted into the air. "So, uh, what count do we follow?" Tony asked, starting to feel a little self-conscious. "4/4? Waltz?"

"I don't know either of those. I think we use different scales?" Steve said, though Tony suspected that the dragon had at least a vague definition from the telepathy. "They'll hum the tune. Just follow the music."

Sure enough, Peggy and Sharon started a soft humming with wordless thoughts that Tony couldn't quite translate, but he could feel. The melody was earthy and deep, beautiful in ways that made Tony long for a proper dance partner. One that he could hold on to while the band played real slow, with a heady perfume that was sealed with a kiss. Wistful, almost, like the one that got away.

Steve launched himself into the sky after Tony, wings spread to catch the up draft. Tony started to follow him, surprised when Steve banked and spiraled around Tony in a lazy pace. He glided down as Tony flew up, and Tony, for his part, did a small spin as he evened out. Steve moved below him, and so as not to be outdone, Tony turned so that he could spiral around Steve next.

The glowing moss made Steve's scales practically glisten in the light. Tony increased the thrust, not caring that it made breathing a little harder. The armor wasn't quite advanced enough to copy the aerial flip Steve just did, but he could go higher up than Steve dared to with those big wings of his. Tony laughed as he touched the cavern ceiling, breaking off a small piece of the crystals that lit up the night sky as he went by.

He moved down and barrel-rolled across Steve's wing tips, his heart pounding with added adrenaline. The pump was over-working again, but he didn't care. He flew straight at Steve, whooping as they both turned at the last second to miss each other. They flew in circles a few more times before landing, Steve gracefully, and Tony with a clunk.

"Bravo!" Sharon said, her tail twitching happily behind her.

"Not bad for a first time," Peggy said, nostrils flaring.

"It's good to see you dancing again, man," Sam said. "But I think you and Peggy should show Tony how it's really done. You up for another song, Sharon?"

"Make it a fast one this time," Peggy requested, a brilliant fire in her eyes as she bound up to Steve.

"Of course!" Sharon said, starting to sing a new and brighter tune.

Peggy and Steve took off laughing, and while Tony had seen dragon dancing a few nights ago, there was something more elegant and sensuous when Steve and Peggy danced that made Tony wish he had actual wings. It was dangerous too. Tony's heart pump nearly stopped when they both dropped about fifty feet in the free fall before straightening up.

"You're good for him," Sam said, startling Tony out of his thoughts.

"People keep telling me that," Tony said, watching Peggy perform a flip in mid-air. "I haven't really done anything though."

"You don't need to," Sam said, dark eyes following the dance above him, though Tony got the feeling his attention was only half on it. "But be careful with him. You're leaving after all of this, aren't you?"

Tony felt like the breath was knocked out of him. Of course he had to go back to the War, but to _leave_. He hadn't really thought of that. He'd probably have to reseal the crevasse to make sure Hydra would never find it. But to never see the dragons again after a dance like that... Tony looked down at the crystal he'd stolen, turning it in his hand. He hadn't felt this alive in years. "I'll have to," Tony said, swallowing back the longing. "The War..."

Sam's wings curled around him protectively, but didn't cut off his view of the dancing. "We know," Sam said quietly, and Tony was torn between wishing he could feel the dragon's wings around him and being glad the armor was shielding him from it. "Steve knows that too. Just... be careful. For both of your sakes."

Tony nodded, unable to speak. He looked down at the crystal he'd broken off, seeing taking in the sharp lines and the milky haze at the end where he'd snapped it. The rest of it was a clear golden color that emitted a faint light. He curled his fist around it, then focused on the song, settling on being glad for the armor. Steve and Peggy wouldn't be able to tell if his smile wasn't completely genuine when they finished.

[](http://angelinoshi.tumblr.com/post/120539806200/capimrbb2015)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Mem: Because when could I say no to dancing? XD


	3. Chapter Three

Dragons, it turned out, really did not like the taste of cooked meat. Tony chuckled to himself as he worked, picturing Sharon puffing out fire after swallowing it. Then the round of apologies from mortified dragons who had picked up the reaction was apparently rude in human cultures from Tony's mind. He whistled cheerfully as he moved another rock, then blasted a new dent with his repulsors.

The new weapons in his gauntlets were responding well. He'd gotten the idea from the orichalcum, but had only just gotten it to work in a way that wasn't entirely hypothetical. And to think Rhodey had been skeptical of the repulsors. He'd change his tune when Tony got back.

He missed Jarvis and the others fiercely, but the dragons were making him feel alive again. He wanted to see Rhodey bantering with Sam and Sharon, Peggy and Pepper discussing the finer details of dragon culture for Pepper's next book, and Jarvis talking with DumDum and Jacques about the wars and showing off the airship. Was it too much to want everything he loved down here, away from the horrors of the upper world?

Probably, Tony realized with a wince. The War was too important to ignore, and dragon society was practically a utopia right out of a science fiction novel. He could only bitterly picture humanity as a corrupting influence.

He was just about to tackle a larger boulder when he heard a scream echoing through the halls of the cave. Not a mental yell or a roar, but a very human scream.

"Hello?" he called out. He made sure the boulders he'd been working on were stable before clunking back towards the gate. He saw no one on the way, and it had definitely come from inside the gate, not out of it. He went past the gate to the other side, where he'd discovered a pit about eleven feet deep that Tony had classified as a dead end his first day of working. "Anyone here?" he asked as he neared the pit.

"Please," a deep feminine voice called out in English. "I need help."

Her accent was indecipherable, but cultured. Cultured and surprisingly sexy. So he really _hadn't_ shared a bed with anyone in a long, long time; Tony was attracted to her and he hadn't even seen her yet. Not that Tony wasn't attracted to most skirts (and a few trousers when it came down to it) with a healthy appreciation of all kinds of looks, but voices weren't generally a thing that did it for him.

He looked down, using the moss lamp to throw some light into the darkness. He saw a body that most definitely matched the voice sitting in the pit, one foot stretched out in front of her. She wore a long, dark green dress without sleeves, cinched in the middle with a black belt. Around her neck and arms were stone snakes that Tony would take a gander and say were jade. Her thick black hair was long and covered by a green veil. It was too dark to see the color of her eyes, even without one of them being obscured by her hair. "Are you alright, Miss?" he asked.

"Are you - are you human?" she asked, fear in her voice. A _voice_. Maybe it was just the lack of hearing actual words other than his own voice for the past week. It was almost a relief to hear someone who wasn't using a mental voice.

He took off the helmet, resisting the urge to run a hand through his messy hair. The gauntlets only made it worse and he had it on good authority disheveled was a good look on him. "I do try to be, Miss, but humanity has gone down hill in recent years. And yourself?"

"Yes," she said, the eye he could see going wider. If Tony was a betting man, he'd say her eyes were green. "I've seen you with _them_. Please, don't tell the dragons I'm here. They do not like humans."

"They can be a bit 'breathe fire first, ask questions later,' I'll admit," Tony said, though after the past few cases, he honestly didn't blame them. "But if I vouch for you, they'll probably go easy on you."

"Please don't tell them," she begged again. "They killed my parents!"

Fear was an emotion Tony understood far too well. Logical arguments didn't always work against it. "Alright," he said, figuring he could deal with that later. "I won't tell them. I promise. But how did you get down here?"

"I live deep in the forest," the woman said. "I hide from them because they are monsters, no better than the rest that live here! But I saw you come in and tame them. I waited until they were gone to try to speak with you."

The dragons were gone? Tony spared a brief moment to worry about where Steve had gotten to, but that would have to wait for now. "Don't move. I'm coming down," he said.

Tony lifted off, careful not to put in too much thrust as the ceilings were very low here. He kept well back from the woman as he landed, saving her from as much of the exhaust fumes as possible. "Are you alright?"

"I think my ankle is sprained," she said, looking down.

Her feet were clothed in soft slippers that were a brilliant emerald green, a little brighter than the rest of her outfit. He focused on the delicate ankle, allowing himself a moment to appreciate. "It doesn't look like it's swelling too badly. I'll fly you out of here and we can take a look in the better light."

She nodded and she stepped closer, noting that the eye he could see was, indeed, green. A stunningly lovely shade like pure jade if Tony were to wax poetic, and attraction was one thing that Tony never felt the need to have denial for. But there was a time and place, and the poor girl was scared and trapped with a strange man. "Take the lantern and hold on tight, okay?" he said, scooping her up into his arms with relative ease.

She was practically weightless. As he moved her, he got a brief glance at the scar running down the left side of her face, hidden behind the cascade of hair. It looked deep and vicious in a way that left Tony surprised that it hadn't taken out her eye entirely. Also very angry, because the fact that it hadn't included the loss of her eye implied the scar to be deliberately planned by whoever had given it to her. "How did...?" he half-asked.

"Dragons," she said.

Steve would _never_ do or allow such a thing. A cut that jumped to miss her eye, meant to scar and scare her, was careful and precise. She would have had to be held down. Tony swallowed hard at the sight, trying to push the thought of torture from his mind. He nodded to reassure her, knowing Steve wasn't the only dragon. He couldn't picture any of the dragons he'd met being that cruel, but dragon wars had to start for a reason. It had to be a dragon from a different clan. Steve had said there was one to the west that they spoke with occasionally.

Didn't matter. He needed to get her out of the dark cavern and into the moss light where he could actually see her ankle properly. "Hold on," he repeated, lifting off as gently as he could.

He set her down just outside the gate, letting the suit disengage. It was, thankfully, much easier to get out of the suit than to get in. Tony knelt down in front of her once it released him and waited for her permission before taking her ankle in his hands.

"It doesn't look too swollen," he said, carefully probing the smooth skin. Her eyes, when he looked back up at her, were even more stunning in the light. "Do you live far from here?"

"A quarter days' walk beyond the ridge," she said, her voice soft and gentle as she spoke. She motioned gracefully to the left at a small hill littered with trees.

Tony thought back to his rides from the city. From what he remembered of the aerial view, that whole section of the cavern was covered with thick vegetation that left very little of the view underneath. If one were to hide from the dragons, that was really an ideal place for it. "I'll escort you home then. I'm Tony, by the way." He took her hand and kissed it, delighted to see a faint flush on her visible cheek as he flirted shamelessly. "May I have the honor of your name, fair lady?"

"I am called Viper," she said.

A strange name, but he was used to strange names in his business. The snake motif made a lot more sense, at least. He looked at the trees and then back to the suit. It wouldn't do any better in those trees than dragons would, and going by air would offer too little cover if Steve or one of the other dragons came back. It was still early in the morning, though, so he could probably make it back in time by dinner if he walked it. "Well then, Miss Viper, if you'd like to climb up on my back, we can get started."

He considered leaving a note for the dragons to find, but without being able to feel his thoughts, they probably wouldn't be able to read it. Instead he drew an arrow in the ground pointing towards the thick foliage and left the suit outside the gate where the dragons could see it. Then, with Viper's arms around his neck and her legs at his waist, he started to make his way through the undergrowth.

Tony shifted Viper up so that he could take a quick moment to wipe away the sweat out of his eyes. It was dark under the canopy, but not too bad. The moss light wasn't quite as good as the sun, but Viper held on to the moss lantern to light up what darkness persisted. Still, Tony didn't want to be here at night. Unfamiliar jungles and names of the meat he'd seen on the dragons' table were not something to laugh at. He followed a river on Viper's direction, the deep, rushing waters making him wary of getting too close to it, but the sound of it soothing.

It was hot, but not too bad under the green. Tony figured he was sweating more because of carrying Viper than the heat, though thankfully she was much lighter than Pepper. Not that he'd tell Pepper that.

It was nothing like carrying home a light weight lush through London, however. The underbrush was unforgiving and uneven, making him regret the lack of a machete. It also looked deadly in ways that would probably fascinate Rhodey but put a reverential fear of nature into Tony. Without Viper's soft, cultured tones in his ear guiding him from danger, Tony wouldn't have set foot in here. It was Rhodey's idea of paradise, not his.

And no, he wasn't thinking of how excited Rhodey would be to see each new leaf or exotic flower. That would be too much like missing him, and that Tony was willing to deny, if just to push back the ache thinking of his friends brought. He wondered how they fared the rest of the fight without him. Rhodey was an even better pilot than Tony, so they had to be alright.

"Your English is good," he said to avoid thinking about Rhodey or Pepper.

"I speak what my parents taught me before they died," Viper said. "They found this place just after I was born, living in the temple grounds. The monsters never visit the holy place, and I serve there as its priestess in return for its protection."

He wondered who her parents could be. From his side of the Atlantic, since she didn't have the British vowels, but definitely not part of the local population up top. "You live here alone?" he asked.

"I go to the surface sometimes," she admitted. "But the way is blocked now and people up there were not kind."

"I'm sorry," he said, knowing full well how unkind humanity could be. This whole damn War sometimes felt like one atrocity after the next, and it shamed him deeply to admit it wasn't just the Axis Powers that committed them. What he'd seen the few times he'd been sent to the front lines... "Must be lonely, living down here by yourself and hiding from the dragons."

"I survive," Viper said, a hint of steel in her voice that Tony hadn't heard before. "It is what I'm good at."

Tony was about to reply when he went still, his gut instinct screaming at him.

"What's wrong?" Viper asked.

"Shh," Tony said, listening for the sounds of the jungle. Even by the gate, there were strange birds and some of the biggest insects he'd had the misfortune to meet, but they all made noise.

"I hear nothing but the river," Viper said.

"Exactly." Tony leaned down, letting her slide down his back, and drew his gun. "Stay behind me."

He watched the foliage carefully for any rustling. Unfortunately, the strike came without warning from the water. Viper screamed as Tony shot, the gun being knocked from his hand by a half-snake, half-man. He was pushed to the ground, hands wrapped around his neck.

Tony pulled fruitlessly at the fingers gripping his throat, bringing his knee up and kicking. There was a hiss and Tony gasped for breath as he rolled away. He heard the gun go off again as he got to his feet.

Viper had the gun. She must have gotten in a lucky shot, because the snake-man cried out, clutching at his side.

The snake-man sank back into the water. Tony started to go after it. It wasn't the first snake he's killed while swimming.

"Let it go!" Viper cried, anguish in her voice.

Tony looked back to see the gun on the ground at her feet. Dropped, most likely, and Tony could hear Jarvis's disapproval at that. Viper herself looked pale, staring at the murky water in horror. "I did not mean to harm it," she said, her eyes wide. "I wanted to scare it away, not..."

"I don't think you hurt it too badly," Tony placated her. He moved away from the water, but kept a wary eye on its depths. "Looked like a graze. The metal probably made it hurt like hell if it's anything like the dragons, but it should survive."

He knelt down, picking up the gun and checking it over carefully. He was going to have to start conserving bullets soon, and he didn't like to think of what else they might come across in this jungle. Next time he was with the suit, he was going to try detaching one of the gauntlets. That would at least have a renewable power source and he'd designed it so that it should be possible.

He holstered the gun, then looked back at Viper. Shell-shocked didn't quite cover it, but she looked close. "You did the right thing," Tony said, very grateful her bad aim had actually hit the target and not him. "If you hadn't done it, we both would be dead right now."

That might have been stretching the truth a little, because Tony had it on the ropes, but the poor girl looked about to faint and needed the reassurance. He found himself wishing Rhodey were here. He was always better at handling panicky civilians.

Thankfully, she didn't faint. She just looked at him with wide green eyes and nodded, though her disbelief and horror still shone through when she looked down at her hands. Tony sighed.

He almost missed Gialetta.

"Do you know what that thing was?' he asked, hoping to divert her fear.

"A naga," Viper said, staring at the river now. "They don't come to the temple, but I see them sometimes on my journey to the surface."

He'd heard of nagas in his studies of various mythologies, but he'd never thought he'd actually meet one, even with all of his adventures and strange things he had seen. "Sounds dangerous, living in that temple by yourself," Tony said.

"That was why..." Viper started to say, then cut herself off.

"That was why what?" Tony asked.

Viper's fear on her face as she looked at the water reminded Tony of some of the young soldiers he'd met that were getting shipped out for their first time to the front. Then she looked back the way they had come, to the gate. "The dragon crystals," she said, shifting off her bad foot.

"Here, you can tell me as we walk," Tony said, leaning down so she could climb on his back again. He wondered if this was how Steve felt, always acting as Tony's mount.

Once she was settled, Tony started to make his way through the undergrowth again. He gave the river a very wide birth, not wanting to tempt fate. "Dragon crystals?" he asked once he had found his pace again.

"The ones above their buildings," she replied. "They keep the monsters from the city. If I had one of those at the temple... That was why I came to you. You've tamed the dragons, do you know where they are?"

"Never asked where they get the large ones to be honest. They're not the same as the ones on the cavern's ceiling," Tony said, thinking back to the crystals and the gravitational devices that kept them aloft. He never did have the proper time to study them, but they gave off a pale light at night that reminded Tony of the moon reflected on a lake. They were comforting. "Those keep the monsters at bay?"

"Most monsters don't like the light it gives off," Viper said. "It reflects the moss's light and is more painful than the moss itself."

"Interesting," Tony said, wondering what kind of biological trick caused that particular trait. "I could ask Steve to get you one. It'd be safer for you."

"Steve?"

"One of the dragons," Tony said. "The big blue one that-"

"Please do not let them know I am here," Viper pleaded into his ear.

"Oh, right," Tony said, kicking himself. "I won't tell. Maybe I can ask where they get it though? Then I can come back and help you get one."

"I couldn't possibly ask you to," she said. "If you just tell me where they are, I could find them myself."

He hesitated. He did have the War to get back to, but... "It'd be my pleasure, and I'll make sure it can't be traced back to you," Tony said. He couldn't just leave a woman to hide in this temple of hers without any protection. At least with the crystal, she shouldn't have to hide so much. It wasn't like he could really help Fury from down here, at any rate.

"Thank you." He felt the soft brush of lips against his cheek, but didn't feel as excited as he might have been at the start of this journey. Instead, he thought of Steve curled around him, blue eyes shining with affection in the crystal's light. He wasn't completely comfortable with those thoughts, however, so he focused on the softness of Viper's lips.

"Anything for a lady," he replied, ducking around a low hanging branch and making sure his foot didn't catch on the raised root in front of him.

It was another hour before they made it to the temple. It was tiered, rising up into the canopy with gates and stairs leading to the top. It looked old, crumbling, and rusted, with trees whose roots straddled the lower gates. Instead of the usual stone, the temple appeared to be metal based, though it was a metal he couldn't quite place. That alone was an exciting thought. It was a pity he'd have to high tail it back instead of taking time to study the new metal.

Though if he were being honest, he was a little glad. Something about the temple gave him the creeps.

"Just through there," Viper said, pointing to a gate with a tree growing on it.

It was a tight fit, but Tony managed without having to put her down. The first inner courtyard was green and overgrown, despite the metal, and Tony spared a moment to wonder if all human buildings would end up like this one day. All the modern marvels of the Empire State Building lost to ever merciless nature. Maybe that was what gave him the chills.

"You can put me down now," Viper said. "You should return soon if you wish to get back before dark."

"I can't just leave you here with-"

"You said you need to find out where the dragons get the larger crystals. You cannot do that if you are looking after me."

Tony let Viper down, not happy with the situation. He looked around the green courtyard, the rust on the side of the walls worrying him. Surely a temple like this couldn't be a safe place to live.

"I will be fine," Viper said, smiling sweetly at him. "I am at the temple now. Nothing will harm me here."

"Alright, Miss Priestess," Tony said. He walked back towards the gate, but didn't go through. Instead, he looked over the tree. The roots were too thick, but the branches were low enough with a bit of climbing, and they looked pretty sturdy. Using the roots as hand holds, he climbed to the top of the gate where he could just reach the branch he had in mind.

"What are you doing?" Viper asked.

He grinned down at her, feeling like a boy climbing a tree for the first time as he jumped up and grabbed the branch, using his weight and leverage angle to snap the branch clean off. It was an inch in diameter and a few feet long. Breaking off the remainder of the small branches and the end where it tapered off, he looked at a perfectly serviceable walking stick.

He dropped the branch down and considered jumping to show off, but he decided against on the basis that a broken leg of his own would make him poor company. He climbed down, grabbed the stick, and presented it to Viper with flourish. "A walking stick for you," he said with a rakish wink.

Viper picked the stick up carefully, testing its strength. "Thank you," she said, her green eyes unreadable.

Tony smiled, giving her a sloppy salute. "Don't push yourself too hard to walk on it. I'll be back in a few days with your new dragon crystal."

"I shall await your return," Viper said. "Please, be careful of the dragons. You shouldn't trust them."

"Don't worry about me," Tony said. "I'm good at surviving too."

She was still waiting there when Tony turned back to wave before sliding past the tree. Her green dress and jewelery practically glowed in the moss light, like an angel amidst an evil temple.

"Strange girl," he said to himself. Not quite his type, but not a bad sort either. Still, her words stuck with him through the journey back. It couldn't have been Steve's clan that killed her parents and gave her that scar. But how much did he really know about the dragons anyway? They may just be acting at being such an open society, or are only truly open with other dragons...

No, Steve wouldn't let-

"Ow," Tony said, rubbing his nose. He glared at the branch that had whacked him because he wasn't paying attention.

Whatever was going on, he needed to put Viper from his mind for now and strengthen his mental walls. He had a promise to keep. Regardless of if he trusted the dragons or not, keeping her secret wouldn't do any harm.

* * *

The moss had nearly faded entirely by the time Tony made it back to the clearing with the gate. He was hot and tired, ready for one of those dragon baths even if he had to share with curious dragons who telepathically broadcast everything to the other dragons. He wasn't expecting to practically slam into a wall of worry as he stumbled out of the jungle though.

"Tony!" Steve's voice rang through his mind and Tony quickly found himself wrapped up in Steve's wings.

"Hey there, big guy," he said, patting Steve's flank.

"Where have you been?" There was a sharp anger in Steve's eyes that didn't quite replace the worry. "The jungle is dangerous! You could have been hurt!"

For a brief moment, Tony was tempted to just tell Steve the whole story. It wasn't like Viper had to know where he'd gotten the crystal from, and it would be easier than hiding it. Then he focused on his walls and half-truths, because it didn't sit right with him to betray that confidence. "I thought I heard a scream. Neither you nor Peggy was here, so I went to look for myself."

"There was a disturbance in the north plains we had to check out," Steve said unhappily, looking Tony over as he slowly de-tangled himself from the adventurer. "Something happened to you."

Tony was surprised, mentally checking over his aches and bruises. None of them were that obvious and his walls were high. How did Steve know? "I..."

"Your walls are higher," Steve said, bending down as if to rub his cheek, but then stopping uncertainly. "You do that when you're upset."

 _Oh_. Steve's wings were twitching in agitation, but aside from protectively surrounding Tony, they didn't try to touch him again. Steve was... Steve was trying to respect his privacy, even when he didn't quite understand the concept.

Tony felt a heat blooming in his chest that had nothing to do with the heart pump. Making sure that his walls were still high, he leaned against Steve's flank, allowing the touch to calm the agitation in Steve's movements. "I'm okay," he said, letting Steve feel a little of what was behind his walls. "Just tired. Ended up in a tussle with a naga that pulled me pretty far down the river, and I never found the source of the scream. I'm just tired from trying to find my way back. Sorry for worrying you."

Steve bent down again and after a moment's hesitation, Tony nodded. As Steve rubbed against his cheek, Tony could feel the dragon's guilt slipping through. "I'm sorry I wasn't there earlier. There was no time to tell you and you were too far..."

"I told you, that's what I've got the suit for," Tony said as Steve moved away. It hit him suddenly how _easy_ it had been to lie to Steve. The dragon didn't even seem to have second thoughts about Tony's admittedly flimsy story. Tony pushed aside the guilt because it really wasn't his secret to give away. It was just a little white lie. A lone priestess in the wood wasn't a danger to the dragons.

"It's getting dark," Steve said, his tail curling about Tony's feet. "It's not safe outside the city walls at night. We should leave."

"Yeah," Tony said, looking over at his armor. It didn't seem worse for the wear for being left outside of the gate, but the rust on the temple walls worried him. "Just let me put the armor somewhere a bit safer."

He nudged Steve's tail with his foot, patting Steve's shoulder when he could feel the slight embarrassment coming from the dragon. He felt doubly guilty for lying to Steve, especially after entertaining a few short-lived doubts about the dragons earlier. It had to be a different clan that hurt Viper. Steve would never allow it.

Half an hour later he climbed onto Steve's neck, feeling his stomach drop away as Steve launched them into the sky. Without the rope Steve usually brought there was no way to perform some of the trick moves the dragons liked to show off with (and Tony privately loved the adrenaline rush). But Steve felt just as tired as Tony was, making Tony wonder at just what sort of disturbance had happened in the north plains.

Tony stared at the dragon crystals that were just starting to glow in the distance, reminding Tony of the lights in New York. "Where do you get those crystals?" he asked, thinking to the small crystal in his pocket that he'd taken from the cavern ceiling. It glowed a little as long as he left it out in the moss light, but no where near as big or as bright as some of the ones he'd seen in the dragon dwellings.

It was, thankfully, fairly normal for Tony to question Steve about parts of dragon culture or engineering. Steve didn't suspect a thing. "There's a cavern to the east, Steve said, and Tony tried to see in the little remaining light as he looked over his shoulder. "It's not too far from the gate. A very short flight," Steve said helpfully. "We don't go there often unless we need a replacement or a new one. It's cold in that cave."

Tony let go of the spike in front of him with one hand to run along Steve's neck and soothe the discomfort he felt from the dragon. "Dragons really don't like the cold, do they?" he asked, carefully not thinking of how cold it had been in Steve's nightmare.

"It makes us unable to use fire and weakens us," Steve said, his mental voice pained. "They tried to use magic on me so I could... I was really small when I was younger. Small and sick. Johann wanted to show us the surface, so-" Green, Gray and Brown. Curiosity and wonder as wide and big as the cavern sky. The scent of wind on a summer day, and the tang of sweet spices and minerals from the earth's secret places. Deep magic that was as malleable as a branch in the wind. "-tried to use the magic to make dragons stronger on the surface with a higher tolerance for the cold. I volunteered."

"That's why you don't mind the cold so much?" Tony asked, feeling oddly hopeful. Steve going to the surface would be a monumentally bad idea considering humanity's current problems, but maybe one day...

"Yeah," Steve said. "Never got to test it."

And even if Steve had a higher tolerance for the cold, it certainly held no good memories for him. Tony continued to rub the length of Steve's neck soothingly, feeling Steve's gratitude in return as his fingers danced over the soft scales.

"Sorry," Tony said. "You don't... I can build a shelter, you know. You'd be more comfortable sleeping inside, right?"

For a long while Steve didn't respond. Then, when Tony had resolved himself to making a shelter no matter how exhausted he was tonight, Steve spoke quietly. "It's warmer with you there. It doesn't feel as cold. Before, even with the lava baths, it still felt cold. But it's different when you're there. When I couldn't find you earlier..."

"Oh," Tony said, emotion choking his voice. "Steve when I... I can't stay here forever. You know that."

"I know," Steve said, lifting them closer to the ceiling and the moon crystals. "That's why I want to keep it for as long as I can. And... After the War, maybe you could..."

"I might have to seal this place up. To make sure Hydra doesn't find it," Tony said, swallowing thickly. "I..."

He wanted to stay.

The thought hit him like a punch to the gut. He really wanted to stay. He was happy here with the dragons. Happier than he had been in ages. He missed his friends and even the company a little bit, but down here he felt alive. There was so much to explore and learn, bringing back his old spirit from before his heart started to get too bad. From when he'd wanted to see the world, not just sit behind a desk all day.

And the guilt was quick on the heels of that realization. There was a war going on up there. A war that needed him. People were laying down their lives even now, and he was down here enjoying himself. He'd seen the camps and the experiments Hydra tried to hide, the cities ravaged by the Axis Powers. He'd heard the intelligence from the other camps, places they were no where close to liberating and the body count... If he had been in Germany, his dalliances with men discovered, would his money have been enough to save him that fate? But that could have been taken from him too.

He owed those people, the ones whose only crime was existing. He needed to be helping them, because what good was a broken body like his if he couldn't use it to make up for the wasted time?

"There are other ways to reach this place," Steve said, comforting thoughts surrounding Tony's mind. "I'll find another one. And when the War is over, I'll find a way to let you know."

There was a stubborn set to Steve's words that brought a smile to Tony's lips regardless of his earlier thoughts. "I don't think that's possible," he said gently.

"I'll find a way," Steve said, mental voice brooking no arguments.

"I'll be waiting for it then." Because when Steve said it like that, it was almost impossible not to believe it.

* * *

It was four days before Tony could sneak out again to look for the crystals. He made good time on the cave-in, at least. By his estimate, he might be out of here by the end of the week. The thought sent a pang through him, but he pushed it to the side as he checked on Steve again.

Steve had been standing guard non-stop for the past few days. There had been only once Tony looked out and didn't see the familiar blue bulk, but Peggy had been there, looking bemused as she shrugged off Steve's paranoia.

"He feels bad about leaving you before," she told him. "Especially since you were attacked."

"I took care of it," Tony said with a shrug. "It wasn't even that dangerous, aside from the naga."

"I wonder if you did," Peggy replied, and there was a sad look in her brown eyes as he tightened his walls. "He worries when you do that."

"He doesn't need to," Tony snapped, then sighed. The issue had been starting to grate on his nerves, but she didn't deserve the lashing for it. "Sorry. That was unfair of me."

Peggy let him rub her cheek in apology, and he tried to come up with a less touchy subject. "What are these disturbances in the north?"

"Bad weather stirring up the trolls and the goblins," Peggy said, her tail flicking to the side in worry. Tony didn't let himself think about how there was weather underground, because that was more of a headache than he wanted to think about. He _would_ find the science behind it eventually. "They've been more active in the past week than they have been in fifty years of your time. It worries me that they are so active now."

Tony quickly pushed down the worry for Viper, living alone in a rusted temple. She said she'd be safe there, and he couldn't afford to think too much of her around the dragons. "Maybe it's just a cold winter coming?" he asked, not sure if they even had seasons down here.

"I doubt that," Peggy said, looking towards the city. "Wanda's prophecies have not been kind. I fear a great danger will come upon us soon."

Tony winced. "The one me coming here started?"

Peggy flared her nostrils and wrapped her tail around him gently. "I thought you were making your own destiny?" she said, her voice fond. "I shouldn't worry about such things. They will come if we worry or not, so don't listen to me."

"If..." Tony started hesitantly. "If there's anything I can do to stop it or help..."

"We'll let you know. But you have your human wars to attend to. Let us get our own problems sorted. We've managed for the past hundreds of years. We will do so again."

He didn't want to leave it like that, but she pushed him back in the cave. It felt like he was being pulled in a million different ways. Viper, the dragons, the War... Who was he supposed to help? Why was it too damned much to want to help all of them?

The next day, however, he walked out mid-morning to find no dragons. "Steve?" he called out as he clanked through the gate and took his helmet off. There was no reply. "Peggy? Sam?"

This might very well be his chance to get the crystal for Viper. If nothing else, that was at least something he could do.

Tony had made note of a small cave to the east of the gate when Steve flew him here in the morning. It was, as Steve said, a short flight. But if he went in the suit, he might be seen. After a few minutes of internal debate, Tony went back inside the gate and took the armor off. It would take longer walking, but hopefully having the suit inside the gate would keep Steve from worrying too quickly. The trees on this side of the jungle weren't as thick, but they would still provide enough cover as long as he kept an eye to the sky.

He did take off one of the armor's gauntlets, figuring the repulsor might come in handy. It'd been easy enough to rewire in the end and it had only taken a few minutes separate it. It felt strange without the rest of the armor, and he flexed his hand thoughtfully as he hooked up the wires to his heart pump. The orichalcum should have no problem with the output, but he didn't think firing repeatedly would be a very pleasant experience for him. Still, he probably had worse from the days he had to continuously recharge the pump.

With that set, Tony started out for the cave, pushing away the guilt he felt for sneaking around while the dragons were fighting. The underbrush was, as he suspected, much lighter than on the west side. He was grateful for that, and even though the distance was longer, he made better time than he had coming back the other day.

There were, thankfully, nothing more than some birds and a few bugs along the way. He rather suspected that was because Steve had been taking out anything dangerous within flying distance of the gate. Tony snorted, glad for once about the over-protective streak if it made his journey faster. The bugs were not biters, though they were annoying as they flew about. He put thoughts of yellow fever and other diseases out of his mind, hoping the dragons could cure that as well if he did find a biter.

By late afternoon he found himself outside a large cave. He had a quick lunch from what he'd stolen from the basket, then lit the moss lamp and started in. The cave was dark and smooth, possibly too smooth to be natural. It was big enough for dragons to enter comfortably three abreast and Tony could feel the sweat drying uncomfortably on his brow. He wiped it away the best he could with his non-gauntleted sleeve. There were no murals down here, and he could see why the dragons didn't come here unless they had to. It very quickly got bitterly cold, and he found himself wishing he had brought the armor just for the extra cover.

He struck his non-gauntleted hand in his pocket and tried not to shiver. He had gotten used to the warmth of the dragon lands and he wasn't dressed for what was probably close to freezing. Hopefully he wouldn't be in here too long.

It wasn't long before the cave opened up to a proper cavern, the ceiling at least 100 feet high and covered with crystals. There were some pits that the dragons had obviously mined from, but also crystals that were still within easy reach. The dragons only took what they needed and Tony was glad for that. "Should be quick enough," Tony said, raising the gauntlet to fire.

But the blast didn't shatter the crystal, or even reflect off. The crystal absorbed the repulsor blast, glowing faintly.

Huh.

"Guess I have to stick to the old fashioned way." Tony rubbed his arm for warmth then took the small pick from his pack. It would be easy enough to get a decent-sized crystal out even with just the pick. He should only need thirty minutes all together. He figured the looks of the crystal weren't as important as the size and as long as it was functional, Viper should be safe.

He leaned over to look for one without fractures when something hard hit him in the back of the head and he fell forward, knocked out cold.

* * *

Tony groaned, the pain in his head pounding harder than his heart. "Well, well. Look what we have here," a familiar voice said. Tony opened his eyes, trying to move his hands only to find even more pain. He cried out, arms tied behind him, and he guessed that the arm with his gauntlet was broken. The wires were pulled out of the heart pump too, leaning down from his ripped open shirt that no longer guarded the heart pump. He wouldn't be able to fire it like this, and his heart was completely open and visible in ways that made him have a full body shudder in a way that had nothing to do with the cold.

He blinked, trying to clear his eyes from the tears that the pain caused. He just managed when a hand gripped his hair, pulling him up. "You..." he said.

"Thank you for finding this place, Mr. Stark," Viper said, her green dress shimmering as she moved, using her veil as a shawl. The fact that she knew his last name when he hadn't told her before didn't bode well for him. "I would have had to search for a long time to find it on my own. I apologize for Cobra breaking your arm, but we couldn't find a way to get the machine off of you. It would be nice to take back with me as a memento, but I don't have the tools to cut metal right now and I'll have my own prize soon enough."

"Who are you?" he asked as she let him go, falling back against the wall. He cried out again as it jostled his bad arm and he tried to hunch over his chest to protect the heart pump. He saw the same naga from earlier behind her, glaring at him. He tried to sit up straighter, but gave that up as a bad job after the pain got to be too much.

"I am Viper, leader of the Serpent Society," she answered. "And you walked right into my trap, Tony Stark."

Tony's eyes went wide. "That's not what I expected from a woman in a temple," he grit out. He'd heard of the Serpent Society, a band of mercenary criminals that had been terrorizing Europe even when he was a simple adventurer. He had a few narrow misses with meeting them, but never had he heard their leader was a beautiful woman. He had the feeling if Rhodey were here, the man would be telling him that he always had a bad feeling about her. Or he would just berate Tony for trusting someone with a snake motif. Not one of his better moments, he'd admit.

"So tell me then," Tony said, using every trick he knew to get around the pain. "What's a pretty doll like you doing in a place like this?"

He wasn't surprised to receive a slap from the naga for his troubles. Avoiding pain had never been one of Tony's strong points. "Show sssome resspect for Madame Hydra," the man hissed.

Tony went still at the name. Fury had mentioned a new leader rising through Hydra's ranks. "I take it the dragons didn't give you that scar," he said, anger rising in him like a high tide. Guilt and foolishness followed after the anger, because he never should have doubted the dragons. He'd known Steve would never do such a thing, yet he'd still...

"This scar is the reason I hate people like you," she said. "The dragons are foolish, but I didn't dare get close to them. The Red Skull's old notes about them made it clear their telepathic abilities were too strong to bluff."

The Red Skull. Of course. The devil-man in Steve's dream! He had been one of the German leaders in the first Great War, though no one knew what had happened to him in the end. How had he not seen that before?

"It took us a long time to find another way down to this place," she said. She kneeled down in front of him, tracing her way down his chest until she stopped at the heart pump. Tony stilled completely. He wanted to flinch away from her fingers, but there was no where for him to go. "But you have saved us an even longer time avoiding the dragons and searching for the crystals. You have served Hydra well, Mr. Stark."

"What are you planning?" Tony growled, forcing himself up regardless of the pain. His arm burned, but he managed to get a proper sitting position so he wasn't slumped over. He tried not to think of how violated he felt with her fingers tracing the rim of the casing. "The dragons-"

"Are none of my concern," Viper said dismissively. She shut the panel of the heart pump with a click, and under any other circumstances, Tony would have been amazed at the first person who looked at his chest without disgust. Her scar was much more visible than a chest pump that could be covered. All she had to do was open it back up and pull, and Tony would be dead in a matter of seconds. But she didn't. He met her eyes and there was an understanding there he hadn't seen from anyone else who knew about the pump. It made his skin crawl.

"They will die here once we have what we came for," she continued, standing up and going back to the crystals. The moment was gone, and though she wouldn't touch the heart pump, she was still just as ruthless. "The Red Skull was a fool to try to turn them to our side. I have found a creature that will serve us far better. All I needed was one of these crystals to wake the creature up from it's long slumber."

"They've never done you any harm!" Tony said. "You don't have to hurt them!"

Viper looked at him, disdain in her eyes. "You should be more worried about yourself. You do not have what it takes to survive, Mr. Stark. He's not worth the bullet," she said, turning to the naga for the last statement. "Throw him in one of the pits. The cold will do our job for us soon enough."

Tony screamed again as the naga dragged him up by his bad arm. He tried to kick and throw the naga off, but the pain was too overwhelming and he was easily over-powered. Fire engulfed his arm despite the cold, and he could do nothing against it.

Then he was let go. Tony stumbled forward, only having a few seconds to try and twist his body for the impact. The air rushed out of him as he hit the freezing ground, his foot twisting painfully under him before he could roll. His other shoulder wrenched as he did, but didn't break, and the crystals dug into his skin as stopped.

Tony concentrated on breathing in and out now that pain screamed in his ears like a banshee. One breath at a time. Freezing air dragged along his burning lungs, making it hard to draw another breath, puffing out in front of him to taunt him of his lost warmth.

"Thank you again, Mr. Stark," Viper said, her voice only just carrying over the pounding of his own heart. "Hail Hydra."

Tony didn't look up. He didn't have the strength to. He could hear them pulling out a crystal as he started to shiver violently. His thoughts were starting to get fuzzy so he shifted, a new wave of pain sending adrenaline through his system. He couldn't afford to go into shock, not now. But as the light faded and the noise stopped, Tony found himself alone in the cold.

He pushed himself to roll over, his labored breathing at least not wheezing. The small crystal fell from his pocket, spilling light into the small pit and reflecting against the other crystals. He had only fallen maybe eleven feet, but his leg ached and his arm was too mangled to try even if he could break the rope binding his hands. The cold seeped into his bones like a slow glacier as he curled up on his side, trying to find a position that both conserved heat and hurt the least.

He was going to die, and quickly. The thought terrified him. After all this time, it wasn't his heart that would kill him. Just the cold and the dark that was creeping back as the small crystal lost its light.

"Steve," he gasped. Viper was going to kill them all to wake this monster of hers. He didn't know how, but he had to warn them. He couldn't just die here. This was all his fault.

It nearly blinded him trying to sit up against the pit's wall and he nearly wasted the effort by curling back up on the ground. His whole body was screaming at him and the sweat was cooling too quickly, leaving him even colder than before. Involuntary tears of pain clouded his vision so much that he nearly gave up on trying to look up.

He felt the wall with the fingers of his good hand, trying not to move too much as his hands were tied together. He couldn't find one sharp enough to cut the ropes and he didn't know if he had the strength to keep searching.

"Steve..." It was no good. He couldn't get out of here like this. But the dragons... Someone had to warn them. He had to...

Tony hesitated, hearing the warning Wanda had given him. " _You are guarded. There will be a time when those walls will harm you. If you wish to survive, you must break them down._ " That time had probably been before when he could have told Steve about Viper.

There was no guaranteeing this would even work if it meant now anyway. Just because it was some magical prophesy a dragon told him was no reason to believe in it. He was no telepath, not like the dragons. The only way it would work was if someone was listening near by. Very near. Usually once the dragons were out of sight he stopped feeling their feelings, though he could hear their voices for a bit further. Steve possibly wasn't even back from the fighting in the north.

It was still worth a shot.

Tony pressed into his arm and hissed in a breath, because this wouldn't work if he passed out before he finished. Then he concentrated on his mental walls and started breaking them down. He flung shame and guilt at them, because he had caused this. He always caused problems by either thinking of his heart instead of other people or acting too recklessly. This was worse than when he'd put Pepper in danger. All of the dragons...

He focused on the pain to keep himself from fading as he brought down the walls. On the things that _hurt_ , because the happy memories just let him drift. His father. Putting in the heart pump. The War. The long War...

He pushed on his broken arm harder, crying out as he broke down the last of the walls. He didn't even know if that was how it was supposed to work and a small, hysterical laugh broke from his lips. He might be doing this all wrong. Maybe doing nothing but making himself miserable for his last moments. But he focused on all the things he normally tried to hide, letting them spill over the broken rubble.

"Steve," he said, his voice sounding weak and trembling. Red, white, and blue. Art and stars that the dragons only knew from myths and legends. The feeling of calm after the rain and the stubborn of a rock that refused to move. _Steve_. He couldn't hold all of the thoughts together, but he could call them the best he could.

Tony shivered as he kept trying. The dragons had to be warned. He was falling, but they had to get out. He couldn't fail them like he'd failed his father. Like he'd failed the people he had seen piled in the pit of bodies when they came too late. He was falling, but the others had to be warned before he hit rock bottom. He was falling...

He was caught.

It was a sea of calming blue and white. There was worry and anger in the distance, but the calm was stronger, enveloping him with a warmth that Tony could almost feel. "Steve," he said, barely above a whisper. "You gotta... You have to get out."

The calm tightened around his mind and a stubborn red joined the colors. "I'm coming," Steve said, his mental voice sounding far away.

"Don't..." Tony said, watching his breath in front of him in the last of the light that the little crystal gave off. "Go. Save... I'm sorry."

"I'm going to find you," Steve repeated. "Stop arguing."

"I'm sorry," Tony said again, curling up against the wall of the pit as best he could. The crystals were hard and cold against his back, but he was shivering less. "You should..."

"I'm not leaving you!" This time there was definitely anger in Steve's mental voice. Tony flinched away from the rage and it was quickly replaced with the blue and white calm.

"I'm sorry," Steve said. "You should have... I'm angry. But I'm coming to find you."

Tony nodded, because trying to argue with Steve was exhausting. It worked, at least. The dragons were warned. He'd apologized, even if he wasn't forgiven. It was the best he could do.

"Tony?" Steve asked, a new emotion entering his voice: fear. "Tony, stay with me."

Tony blinked. "Sorry," he said again. He hated apologies. It wasn't that he was too prideful to make them, but he could never face what came after. He was actually a little relieved that there had been no forgiveness. He wasn't sure he could handle it. "I think... it's time for me to sleep."

"Tony, _stay awake_."

"Just try and make me," Tony said, slipping off into oblivion.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Mem: There were times when I was writing this part when I was like... Surely Tony would notice something a bit off about Viper. Her name is _Viper_ , for pete's sake. But then I looked back at some of his past flings and was like... nope. He'd fall for her act completely. Oh, my silly duck...


	4. Chapter Four

Tony was surprised to wake up. He was even more surprised to be warm. Sadly, there was no third surprise about being pain-free. What he wouldn't give for some aspirin. His arm and leg hurt like the dickens, though he did feel a little less bruised.

"Steve, you've got to let us help him." Someone... Peggy? It sounded like Peggy. Tony opened his eyes and a familiar blue wing greeted him. In fact, he could feel Steve beneath him, not just physically, but mentally with a strength that Tony had never known before. It was a jumble of intense fear and anger, along with a fierce need to protect and no real words. Now that he was concentrating, he could hear a low growling and hissing noise.

"Steve, snap out of it!" Peggy said. It was definitely Peggy's mental voice, even if he couldn't see her.

"Peggy?" Tony asked.

"You're awake." There was relief in her tone that washed over him like a cool rain. "You've got to talk to Steve and get him to back down."

"Back down from what?" Tony asked, hissing himself when shifting jostled his arm. The tail around his waist curled tighter, leaving him with limited mobility.

"You were badly hurt," Peggy said. "You and Steve... After Bucky's death he was like this. I don't think he can go through that again. Just talk to him and let him know you're alright. He's all instinct now."

That explained the lack of actual thought coming from the dragon. "Steve," he said, his voice hoarse. "Hey there, you big lug. Hey. I'm okay. You can stand down, big guy."

 _Hurt_.

"Yeah, I'm hurt. But I'm safe now. And if you let me go, I can get better."

Steve's tail did not let Tony go. Tony pat it reassuringly. "Steve, it's fine." Then he pressed his good hand against the tail and thought about the stars on a calm night with the ocean's waves as the only music as they rocked the Lady Dorma soothingly. "Shh. It's okay."

Red, gold, and gunmetal grey. Fire of the forge and passion. Science and wonder of the unexplored. A lone star burning all alone in the moonless night.

"Steve?" Tony said, trembling at the name-feeling. It was like Steve had taken a piece of his soul and named him with it, and the thought of anyone knowing him that well shook him to the core.

The name-feeling repeated. "I'm still angry at you," Steve said, though he sounded fuzzy and confused.

"Right," Tony said, swallowing hard. "Well, you can let go of me now."

It took Tony a moment to realize that the grumpiness that accompanied the thought of letting him go was not his. It was a little terrifying, because it was a level of intimacy that Tony had never experienced before.

"Your walls are down," came the muddled reply.

Tony immediately started on rebuilding the mental walls. They weren't what they had been, but they would at least be better than nothing and even building those made him tired. It wasn't until he felt the shield on his mind lessening that he realized Steve had been shielding him in more ways than one. "Now will you let go? My arm hurts."

Steve's tail carefully uncurled and his wing lifted up so that Tony could see a very worried-looking Peggy and Sam.

"You should have left," Tony said.

"We've evacuated everyone we could," Peggy said. "We of the guard will stay to try to protect the city. Sam-"

"On it," Sam said, pushing Steve away with a friendly shove.

Tony gasped as the movement jarred his leg and worry became the number one emotion he was getting from Steve. "I'm fine," Tony gritted out. He pushed on Steve's flank to get his point across. "Or will be. Let them get me to a healer."

"You're stuck with me, actually," Sam said, head going down to look over Tony's leg. "We sent the head healers away with the rest of the civilians. But I've had a lot of practice with bad wounds on the battle field."

There was an underlying current of anger from Sam that made Tony wince. He probably deserved that, but it didn't stop the slight hurt.

Tony's eyes widened as Steve growled, tail whipping back around him. "Steve, I'm fine," Tony said, frustration building. "You can stop with the over-protective act."

Sam's nostrils flared. "Oh, so you can be angry with him, but we can't?" Sam asked playfully, whacking Steve lightly on the head with his tail.

Steve stopped growling and put his head close to the ground, removing his tail from Tony's torso. Tony could feel the shame and embarrassment rolling off him like he was just waking up and still sleepily reacting to things. The pose made Tony want to pet Steve and tell him it'd be okay. Pain stopped him from acting on it though.

"Your sad eyes don't work on me, pal," Sam said, snorting smoke in amusement. "And neither do yours, Tony. You picked the wrong dragon to bond to if you don't like protective sides."

Tony was surprised to find Sam was talking to him. "I..."

"Why did you hide it?" Peggy asked sorrowfully. "We could have helped you with the stone and found out that she was lying. Didn't you trust us?"

Tony looked down at his still gauntleted hand that he couldn't move. "And if she'd been innocent?" Tony asked. "Yeah, I fell for it and I should have known better than to have my head turned by a pretty face. Rhodey would be the first to tell you I'm a terrible judge of character. But she... she asked me to keep it a secret. It wasn't my secret to tell."

"I don't understand," Peggy said. "You're not allowed to tell secrets if they are not yours?"

Tony could feel Steve's understanding before he spoke, but he didn't think about the intensity of Steve's feeling and emotion compared to the others. That was more than he wanted to deal with right now. "It's a matter of trust between me and her, not me and all of you," he explained. "If I told you she existed and she was legitimate, it breaks the trust she put in me to help her. She was... I thought she was just scared of you. That's the truth." He had wondered, just a little, if the clan he knew were like the dragons Viper described, but that notion never held up when he thought of Steve and the others. That should have clued him in.

Sam and Peggy shared a look, then Sam reached out and touched Tony's cheek with his claw. "Can't say I understand," he said, "but it seems like it's important to your culture."

"Breaking someone's trust like that is a terrible breach of honor," Tony replied.

"Alright. It's in the past now, I suppose. We can't help it and it was a mistake made of good intentions, if not in wisdom," Peggy said, poking at Steve with her tail. Steve ignored her, head still low to the ground, and Tony could feel more guilt rolling off him. Tony started to try to move towards him, but Sam's claw on his shoulder kept him down.

"This will hurt by the way," Sam said, looking at Steve with a clear message to behave.

Tony undid his belt awkwardly with one hand, Sam helping him once he realized what Tony wanted. Then Tony put the belt in his mouth and nodded.

 _Hurt_ was the understatement of the decade. Tony closed his eyes and focused on not screaming as he bit down on his belt. And that had probably just been a fracture, Christ. He could feel Steve's anxiousness, but Tony couldn't find the will to reassure him. Tony heard his dragon-name feeling, but it felt private, like he was the only one who had heard it.

When it was done, he spit out the belt and gasped for breath, trying not to jostle his arm too much and add to it. There was a tail wrapped comfortingly around his waist that helped support him, but when he opened his eyes, it wasn't blue. Peggy was bracing him, lightly rubbing his back.

"Do you need the metal off to heal the arm?" Peggy asked Sam.

"'Fraid so," Sam said, looking at it critically.

"I thought you might say that," Tony said with a sigh once he had the breath, wondering if he should put the belt back in his mouth to take the gauntlet off. Something to dull the pain would have been real nice at this point.

He started to reach for the catches when Peggy caught his hand between her claws. "Show me how. I'll be careful."

Tony nodded, then thought of a clear picture of the clasps. "Run your claw along here and here," he said, pointing to the sections. "And push down on the panel in the back as you do. No, closer to the top of my inner arm. There. And open the catch. You won't be able to see it, but you should be able to feel it when it pops open. Be careful of the wires. I don't know how well dragons take to being electrocuted, but humans don't do well and I've been banged up as it is. Also, I still need the gauntlet to function. There's a few more catches on the inside, but it should come apart easily enough after that.

"And your heart?" Peggy asked.

He looked down at the wires that had been torn out of the heart pump, thankfully none of them ruined too far beyond repair. The heart itself still worked, the orichalcum still lodged in as a battery source. Whether she was cruelly letting him die of something other than his bum heart or she actually meant that moment of understanding, he didn't know. He shivered at the thought of her fingers on his chest, however, and he had to force down the nausea that thought brought up.

Viper was a planner, and a good one, but not well-versed in cutting edge technology. He was lucky it wasn't Zemo he'd gone up against, or even Strucker who had more experience with the Hydra suits, or the repulsor tech would now be in Nazi hands. And his heart...

"It's about as good as it can be," he replied, feeling more open and vulnerable with his shirt open than he had when his mental walls were down. "They didn't mess with it, at least. Let's just get the gauntlet off me."

Peggy touched his cheek once and he allowed himself to lean into it briefly before bracing himself for the pain. Peggy had steady and gentle claws, but there was no helping some of the pain. Thankfully with Tony's guidance, it was a quick job.

"You take this off by yourself?" Sam asked, his head cocked to the side.

"Not usually," Tony said wryly. "And it's actually easier to get off than on again. But it's doable." Not entirely pleasant, but then, when was Tony's life ever that good?

The pain this time was much more intense. Tony would have given his fortune for a dosage of aspirin, but dragons didn't have much in the way of pain killers. Anything they had would probably be too strong for him anyway.

"What is the water in your eyes?" Peggy asked after he spit out his belt and could breathe again.

Tony reached up to wipe them away with his now good hand, flushing slightly. "The human body's response to sadness or pain," he said. "They're called tears."

"It's a natural response, isn't it?" Sam asked. "So why are you ashamed of it?"

"It's... stupid reasons, I suppose. Men in our society aren't supposed to cry, though Pep would tell me off if she heard me say that." And besides, Stark men were made of iron. He wondered how much had been the Zemo formula and how much of his memories of those years had been the true Howard Stark. He didn't remember much of his father before the Great War, and after...

He pushed those thoughts away, but he had the feeling his walls still weren't up to snuff, not when Peggy's tail was tightening comfortingly around him. He could still feel Steve in the back of his mind, but when he looked up, the blue dragon was no where to be found. That surprisingly hurt in a way that felt not unlike betrayal, though he couldn't have said why exactly. Tony sternly reminded himself that the others had good reason to be angry with him. After what he'd done...

"Just give him some time," Peggy said, sensing his unasked question. "Steve needs to get his head on straight after that. He's scared."

"It's your turn to deal with his sulking," Sam said cheerfully before Tony could ask what Steve was scared of, because now that she mentioned it, he could feel the underlying emotion through Steve's presence in his mind. "I took care of the last couple of times. It's now someone else's problem."

Before Peggy's exasperation could get the better of her and start them bickering, Tony tried to wrestle control of the conversation back. "Usually once one of you is far enough away, I can't feel you any more. How come I can still feel Steve?"

Sam and Peggy shared another look. "You're bonded now," Sam said, the words running through Tony's mind. "Like Peggy and Sharon. It's been building for a while now, but you getting hurt must have tipped the bond."

Tony could feel the panic he'd been pushing down in favor of getting his wounds seen to. "What does that mean? And don't I get a choice in this?" he asked.

"Your choice was already given whether you acknowledge your permission or not." Tony jumped at the new voice, looking up to see Wanda and Sharon alighting on the roof. "It is a deep connection and it can only happen with a willingness from both sides. As Sam said, it has been building for a while, and has only been waiting for you both to lower your walls."

"You should have left with the rest of the civilians," Peggy said as Tony mulled over Wanda's words. "You said it yourself. There will be great danger here."

"She wouldn't listen," Sharon said, with exasperation that felt more like Peggy than the young dragon Tony had gotten to know.

"I am not one of the City's defenders, but you know I can fight," Wanda said, folding her wings against her sides. "There is still much that must be done. The human should see the mural before the chaos comes."

"We need to find Madam Hydra," Tony said, slowly standing as Peggy helped him up. His foot felt fine now, and so did his arm, even if he felt weak and a little dizzy. All the other bruises he'd gotten were gone, and Tony suspected Steve of healing what he could earlier. There was no reason not to go back to the temple and find her before she managed to wake the creature. There was still time. "We can stop her before-"

"She will be charging the crystal," Wanda replied calmly. "And if she has remained hidden from us this long, it is unlikely we will find her in time. We will find her when she seeks us."

Tony looked down, frustrated. She was right. The dragons knew the land better than he did and if Viper wanted to stay hidden... He didn't even know if she'd return to the temple or to a new hide out, one less flashy that she hadn't lead Tony right to. "I'm sorry," Tony said. "This is all my fault."

"She would have found the crystal regardless. The only difference is it happened faster and now we have a warning that we would not have had if you had not been there," Wanda said.

That didn't make him feel better, but Peggy gave him one last tail hug before letting him go and nudging him closer to Wanda. "Go. We'll look after Steve and the city while you're gone. If Wanda wishes to show you something, you would be wise to go with her."

Wanda leaned down and as Tony threw his leg over her neck; he saw Peggy and Sharon embrace each other. Sharon looked like her normal self, a bit serious but genuinely happy to be around Peggy. Peggy rubbed her cheek, but he felt the sorrow and pride she had for her little sister.

He wasn't going to let them get hurt. If it was the last thing he did, he would fix this mistake.

* * *

He had never been alone with Wanda before. The dragon often spoke with Peggy or Sam, but she only spoke to Tony a few times and those had all been cryptic remarks. He'd heard her laugh before with the others at least, but knowing she could act normal really didn't help off-set her other-worldly aura that gave Tony chills down the backs of his arms. She was kind, though, and Tony focused on her kindness rather than the magical power he couldn't define.

They landed in the far north of the great cavern on a secluded ledge that lead to a small hall. "What is this place?" he asked as they stepped inside. This cave was warm, almost too warm for his liking.

"This is where the mural rests," Wanda said. She walked ahead of him, her tail swishing behind her.

"That's where you get your prophesies from, right?" Tony asked. The cave didn't seem to be all that special. Aside from the warmth, he wouldn't have been able to tell it apart from the cave with the dragon crystals. He wondered how extensive the cave network was. He could spot plenty of caves along the cavern wall as the dragons flew him places, but how many of those had been explored? He itched to go down a few of them, but he knew that would have to wait. Still, after the War if Steve found him... Maybe Steve wouldn't mind exploring with him? And he could bring Rhodey, Pepper, and Jarvis along. He couldn't let too many people down here, but they would keep the secret.

Pepper would scoff at first. She had pointed out how completely ridiculous most of the accounts of his adventures were before. But seeing the dragons would really amaze her. He expected at least a minute of words most ladies would never speak, then thousands of others for her new book. Rhodey would love the fauna down here and discovering their properties. He'd probably take a liking to Sharon who was always so eager to learn. Jarvis would love studying some of the draconian aqueducts because they were nothing like the old Roman ones. And Steve... He could feel Steve at the other end of the bond. It was just a little terrifying.

"You miss home," Wanda said.

"I miss my friends," he corrected.

"For you it is one and the same."

That was probably truer than he cared to let on. He did miss New York, but not as much as he missed the people.

"You are a hero among your people,"she continued, pausing in front of a dark ledge that she was eye-level with. She stood up on her hind legs and pulled out a moss lantern, drawing a circle over her arm. It reminded Tony of how people genuflect in church.

"I'm no hero," Tony said, looking away. "Heroes save people. I went on adventures to save myself before the War, and now..."

"Now you save people," Wanda said. "You give them hope."

"You're thinking of someone else. I'm not-"

Tony halted as she wrapped a tail around him, her head coming up to the level of his hands. He reached out awkwardly to pet her like he sometimes did with Steve, and her eyes closed. "It's not your fault," she repeated. "And your stories give people hope. Never underestimate that."

"Yes, Ma'am," he said, swallowing thickly around the lump in his throat. He touched her cheek and her nostrils flared before she moved away, guiding him through the cave as her tail released him.

It finally opened up to a big cavern room that the moss lantern only barely lit. Tony could see maybe five feet from the lantern, the rest of the cavern dark and unwelcoming. He shivered despite the warmth. "Wanda?" he asked, unsure of the path. He didn't move closer to her, though he wanted to. His last few memories of dark caves were not pleasant no matter how warm this one was, and he could feel Steve's discomfort as well.

Wanda didn't answer. She turned to the side, blowing out a small flame along the wall. It caught on a ledge Tony hadn't seen, fire spreading around the cavern's parameter like wild fire with some unknown fuel that was too high for him to peer at.

"Color me impressed," he said, looking at the now well-lit room. He'd seen all sorts of clever tricks the ancients used, but dragon fire had a different sort of light that put him at ease.

The cavern itself was unassuming. It certainly didn't have any of the murals that the gate had and it looked to be nothing more than plain rock. "Are the murals further back?" he asked uncertainly.

"They are all around you," Wanda said, pointing to the wall where they entered. "Here is the start of our clan. Touch my shoulder and I will show you."

Tony did as she asked. As her claw traced the rock, Tony had a sudden vivid image of the same mural he'd seen when he'd first fallen down the crevasse. The sky above was clear and blue, the sun beating down on the valley as the dragons fought to protect themselves from the humans. The metal weapons were sharp and deadly and the humans weren't afraid of fire. It burned them, but they kept coming.

The green dragon he saw in the cave wasn't just lying on the ground. Tony watched as - Green, orange, white. Sunlight on an open plain. Dew drops in the morning and song. Natural rhythm and a blooming daffodil - was wounded by a human she had been trying to save from a vicious pitch black wolf. She tried to make it back to her mountain, to her brother, but the wound was too great. She fell to the ground, barely managing to lift her head to look at the sky she could never return to. She was going to die like this. She couldn't-

Tony took his hand off Wanda's flank like he'd been burned. He was breathing heavily as his heart pounded, blinking back the emotion of the vision.

"That was-" Tony said, starting to reach for the wall to brace himself before he remembered and pulled back. If that was what he felt through Wanda, he didn't dare touch the wall itself regardless of how the vision might not work for him alone. He rubbed his eyes, then his hand fell to cover the heart pump. "What was that?"

"A memory," Wanda said. "The mural shows a history of this clan, and that was a whisper from centuries ago of your time."

"I saw that picture in the cave by the gate," he said. He shook his head to clear it. "How-"

"The mural there revealed itself to you. It showed you our history. Come. I will show you a better memory," Wanda said.

Wanda walked up to another section of the wall, her claw running down in a straight line. Tony hesitated, but put his hand back on her flank.

Gold, blue, green. A gust of wind on the cloudless day and a nightfall of music and words. History and stories, the sweetness of honey with a hint of ginger - set the crystal on the dais. It was the last component of the building he and - White and gold. A field of grain on an open plain. Herbs and sacred knowledge. A bonfire under the pale moon - had made together. It wasn't the same as living on the surface, but they'd make do underground. It was warm down here, perfect for raising a family.

Soon, the crystal would charge and then... He didn't want to get ahead of himself. There were so many things that could go wrong. The egg might not hatch or they might be forced to leave again. But soon - hopefully - they could have a proper family. It was a little scary when he thought of being a father, but he could feel his bonded's love through the link. She would be a wonderful mother, enough to make up for all of his faults. He would -

Tony took his hand away again. He didn't know how old that memory was, but it felt private, like he'd been intruding. The memory was soothing at least, even if it held a wisp of longing and wistfulness that stayed with him.

Wanda was regarding him with curiosity. "Your culture has strange notions of what should and should not be shared," she said, though there was no judgement in her tone. "Do you not share your happiness?"

"Sometimes," Tony said. He thought about the airship and the few times where Jarvis had opened up a good scotch to celebrate. Of Pepper and Rhodey and the warmth of their smiles. "But not with everyone. Somethings are just for certain people."

"To guard your sorrow and happiness so well that only a few may know it... I can't claim to understand it, nor do I think I could live like that. Why do it?" Wanda asked.

"People can take advantage and some will use anything they can find to take you down," Tony replied. The newspapers never ran out of scandals to publish about him, and he had less privacy than he liked if he wasn't careful. Half the time that was what drove him from New York on his adventures.

He looked around the blank walls of the cavern again with a new-found wariness. He shivered. He had no explanation for the visions Wanda had shown him. She could have seen from his memories about the murals in the gate cavern, but he had barely thought of them since he met the dragons personally, despite seeing them nearly every day. And those visions didn't feel like they had come from Wanda either, though he couldn't have said how he knew that.

" _It's magic_ ," Steve said, his voice coming from far away.

He'd been trying to avoid that word, thanks. He felt a subdued amusement and brief wave of comfort through the bond that Tony wasn't entirely comfortable with. Everything in this room stank of magic and he really missed hard science.

"So this whole room just shows you history?" Tony asked, pushing those thoughts away. He'd sort it out later.

"And the future, but only to those that can see it," Wanda said, moving to the far end of the wall. Tony followed after her slowly, not sure if he wanted to see what the future held.

"You're running out of space," he remarked as they came to the very end of the cavern wall. He could feel Steve's alarm at that, which made him wonder that this wasn't common knowledge.

"The next mural will start when our clan finds their new home," Wanda said. "And they will live on, thanks to your warning. Though things will still end here, there is a new beginning for the others."

"I..."

"Let me show you," she said. The dragon bent down and touched a portion of the wall along the edge that was near the bottom.

Tony touched her shoulder, immediately immersed. He was expecting it this time, but that didn't stop his or Steve's surprise. This time the vision was of them. It was Steve's thoughts he saw this time, not a stranger's.

Steve was sitting on the rock, eying the armor with unease. It was better now that Tony had taken the helmet off, but he still didn't like it. The cold metal had a blankness that felt too much like Johann and it unnerved him. Tony was warmth. The metal was cold.

It could also fly, according to Tony, but Steve didn't see any wings on it. He laid on the edge, pretending not to pay attention. He didn't really think Tony could get up here, but he'd humor the human for now. Tony liked showing off, and Steve liked watching him.

There was a strange noise that caught Steve's attention, and he quickly looked down to make sure Tony was alright since he was too muffled in the suit to feel it properly. What he saw below was an amazing sight.

Tony was _flying_ without wings and a stream of... exhaust? That seemed like the word, though Steve couldn't be sure with the metal around Tony. The exhaust followed him like a grey puff from the ground. "So you _can_ fly," Steve said, grudging admiration for the metal machine making its way through him. There was no small amount of wonder for Tony either, the man who'd made it. "And you don't mind that it's all metal? Is it magic?"

"Metal doesn't bother me, and it's definitely not magic. This is all science."

There was pride and excitement in Tony's eyes, though it was hard for Steve to read human body language. Steve reached out a hesitant claw to touch Tony's covered hand. The awe and wonder doubled and Steve himself felt pride at Tony's accomplishments. He wondered how-

"That was the other day," Tony said, pulling back from Wanda. "You bastard, you really _didn't_ think I could fly." The latter was for Steve who he knew was still listening even if he didn't know how.

" _Metal always gets in the way of magic and you had no wings_ ," Steve sent back apologetically.

"Do human faces often turn red?" Wanda asked, reminding Tony of his surroundings.

Tony resolutely did not think of the pride and wonder that had been in Steve's thoughts during the memory. He coughed. "It happens occasionally," he said, also not thinking about the meaning of why human faces turned red. He got the sense Steve figured out the truth anyway and was very interested in that fact. Punk.

"Am I always going to have Steve in the back of my mind? It's unnerving," he said, shaking his head to clear it.

"He will always be there," Wanda said, merriment in her eyes as her nostrils flared. "But not always paying attention. I suspect he is now because it is rare for anyone other than me to be allowed in this cavern. If you concentrate, you can see what he is doing as well."

"I can?"

"Close your eyes and reach for Steve," Wanda said.

Feeling a little ridiculous, Tony closed his eyes and... well, he didn't know how to _reach_ for Steve, but he thought of Steve and slowly the cavern faded away to Steve curled up against one of the lava baths. He could physically feel the warmth of the lava, though it wasn't too hot for him this time. The strangest thing though was that Tony still felt a little cold despite it. He couldn't actually see Steve, and Tony was almost jarred out of the contact when he realized he was seeing out of Steve's eyes.

"I can leave you two alone, if you don't want me listening in," Steve said apologetically. His voice was as clear as if he were crouched right next to Tony. "I'm sorry. I should have asked first."

"It's okay," Tony said, though maybe it really wasn't, because now the panic that he had mostly managed to keep back was bubbling to the surface. "You can see everything-"

"I won't look if you don't want me to," Steve said firmly. "Though I might... That will take some getting used to for me, but I'll try to remember to ask next time. I know it's difficult for you."

He could feel how different it was for Steve too. With Bucky, they had nearly always been talking to each other, even when they weren't actively paying attention. That Tony wanted this damned privacy hurt in ways Steve hadn't expected.

"I'm sorry," Tony said, his throat feeling dry. It didn't seem to matter. Even as a bonded link he was a disappointment. Steve had left right after the bonding and...

"You're _not_ a disappointment," Steve said, repeating Tony's dragon name-feeling. There was anger in his tone, but it was directed inward, not at Tony. "I just... It's different. Not a bad different. Just one I need to get used to. Tony... I'm glad this happened. I really am."

"I..." He didn't know what to think about the bond. Part of him was terrified, and Tony could feel the hurt from Steve at that thought. This was why sharing emotions was horrible. "Damn it, sorry. This is why we... I don't like hurting you."

"Any kind of relationship will hurt eventually," Steve said. It sounded like he was quoting someone, but Tony couldn't quite sense if it were Peggy or Sam. "We can talk when you get back. But Tony... thank you."

"For what?"

"For helping me feel warm again," Steve said.

Steve did feel warmer, even though he hadn't moved from the lava bath he was curled around. But Tony hadn't really done anything but ask questions.

"Thank you," Steve repeated at Tony's disbelief.

"You're welcome, I guess."

"Your face is red again."

Wanda's voice snapped him back to the cavern. Tony opened his eyes then shut them against the light, rubbing his temples. "You're hurt," she said sharply, and he could feel Steve's worry on top of hers.

"It's just a headache," Tony said, opening his eyes again. This time the light didn't hurt, but the headache didn't leave.

"You should go slowly with the mind link," Wanda said. "It doesn't appear human minds can adapt to it quickly."

"You're saying I need to flex muscles I never use?" Tony said with a pained chuckle. "It's... Wait. That's not even your fault, Steve! Great, now he's sulking again."

He felt Wanda's laugh along with Steve's sulking and it eased some of the pounding in his head. "He is known to do such things from time to time."

Then she sobered, her claw moving down the wall again. "But there is more for you to see."

"I'm not going to like this one, am I?" Tony asked, putting his hand back on her flank.

It was dark. He missed the crystal he'd lost in the cave because now the only light was the horrific red glow from the skull. It was enough to see the eyes glowing in the heads that tried to bite at him and the terrifically sharp teeth that could do more than just dent the armor. The repulsors made things worse, so he fired the flame thrower at one of the heads before the ground under him started to shake. Startled, Tony nearly fell off and only the flame thrower saved him from getting bitten in half as he tried to regain his footing.

He cursed as the ground moved again, thrusters catching him before he fell. He flew back and gave a small yelp as he tried to stabilize. His arm hit the edge of the platform, but it righted him, and he could finally see to fire. Four - no, five heads now. He'd been standing on one of them when he landed, which was why the ground was moving. The one he'd been standing on was chewing on-

" _No!_ " Tony said, stumbling back until he fell. His heart was beating double time as he tried to push the image from his mind. His stomach rolled and he could feel himself trembling as he swallowed back bile. "Steve-"

" _I'm here._ "

"I saw-"

" _It was too small to be me_ ," Steve said. He sounded equally upset but intent on reassuring Tony. " _It was... I don't know. But it wasn't me._ "

Tony took a deep breath. Too small was equally horrific, because that had to mean young. But Steve-

" _It couldn't have been me. You'd have felt it if it was, even if it was just a vision,_ " Steve repeated.

Tony opened his eyes, looking up at Wanda. Anger forced him to his feet despite how his head pounded. "Why did you show me that?" he yelled.

"So you could be prepared," Wanda said, her eyes soft and sympathetic.

"It's not going to happen," Tony said, his hands fisted tightly against his side. "I'll change things."

"The hydra will wake and it will destroy this place," Wanda said. "There is no changing that."

"I won't let it happen," Tony repeated. "I can fix this. That's what I do, fix things, so I have to fix this!"

Wanda leaned down, closing her eyes as she rubbed her cheek against his. Tony was shocked to stillness. The other dragons used their claws still; it was only Steve who ever rubbed their cheeks together, and Tony had gotten the impression only those that were really close did it.

"You will try," Wanda said. There was a warmth in her voice that should have incensed Tony. Instead it soothed him, and his fists unclenched. "It's not your fault, regardless of if you can fix it, Tony Stark. This is inevitable."

"There's more to the mural, isn't there?" Tony asked.

"It is the end of the wall," Wanda said, though there was still a little space below her claw.

"There's more though," he pressed.

"There is. The magic will not show itself to you yet, however."

"So dragons _do_ keep secrets," Tony said, feeling Steve's fear and surprise at that. "If you knew all of this was coming, why didn't you say anything? You could have warned me about Viper, or-"

"The magic reveals itself to those who it will," Wanda interrupted, her voice as hard as the rocks around them, though not unkind. "Would you normally lose interest in murals of our history, like the ones beyond the gate?"

Tony felt his eyes widen. He frowned, searching his memories. Of course he wouldn't lose interest. He had to pay attention to details like that, because often in temples they held warnings for traps or clues to the artifact he was after. And the dragon history had been fascinating. He'd pushed it off the first time as fantasy, but he'd walked along the murals many times since and hadn't given them another thought. That was... That was really-

"I hate magic," Tony said, rubbing his temples. He didn't need a worse headache because magic was turning up again. He wondered if he could get away with telling Pepper that Viper had bewitched him though. That sounded much better than admitting his own gullibility with a pretty face.

"All hope is not lost," Wanda said. "What seems like an end can be another beginning. A sacrifice could change things for the better."

"That's not cryptic at all," Tony grumbled. He needed to think, to find ways to change what he saw. The crystal was a lost cause and probably useless, despite the fact he was saddened for losing it, but if he could recognize the small dragon he could...

All of the dragons were evacuated though. If Steve didn't recognize the dragon, then that might be a dead end. His headache was getting worse and it was getting harder to remember the details.

"You should rest now," Wanda said, pushing him lightly towards the entrance. "You are not used to the magic of the bond yet."

"No time to rest," Tony snapped, pushing her tail away as she tried to help him along. "We've got to-"

"It's late. The moss light is fading. The crystal Viper stole won't be fully charged yet," she said.

"All the more reason to go now." He walked forward, then drew a sharp breath as his head spun. That was okay. He could work with dizzy. He'd done it in the past.

" _Tony, please,_ " Steve said. Tony started, looking around for Steve before he remembered the bond. Damn, the headache was getting worse if he couldn't even remember that.

" _There's nothing we can do tonight,_ " Steve continued, a forced reasonableness in his voice that barely hid the worry. " _If you keep this up, you'll hurt yourself._ "

"We could check the temple," Tony insisted. "She was there for a reason last time. She could be-"

" _She'd be ready for us, and that temple is made of metal. She definitely knows it better than we do and wouldn't need a light to explore. Come back to the city. You need to eat and rest_ ," Steve said.

There was an image of the city in Tony's mind's eye that came along with a sense of home that Tony had never felt before, at least not in regards to a place. The warm hearth that beckoned him despite how Tony knew it would be too hot for him. A place by Steve. Home.

" _We'll go first thing tomorrow_ ," Steve promised. " _Just come home now so we can talk._ "

Tony sagged against Wanda. After that vision she had shown him, part of him wanted nothing more than to check on Steve himself and make sure he was okay. He wanted to stay in his make-shift home on the roof tonight and never leave it. But he needed to fix this. He couldn't start running again, because if he did, he was afraid he'd never stop.

There was affection and understanding from Steve, along with strong concern and worry. The suggestion to come back felt like more of a demand, and it had an undercurrent of anger that Tony couldn't discern the cause of while his head hurt this much.

"Come," Wanda said. "Let us return for the night. What will happen will happen, but you would better serve the vision well rested."

"Alright," Tony said, worn down by the two dragons. "I... Let's go back."

Wanda helped him to the entrance, flying him back as he tried to process the visions and the bond as well. He didn't know what to think of the implications of it. He could still feel Steve in the back of his mind, though it seemed like the dragon's attention was elsewhere - somewhere cold and dark, and Tony shivered at the thought. He almost reached out to Steve like he had before, but his head was worse than a pounding drum. It was also an invasion of privacy if Steve wanted to be alone, even if he knew Steve wouldn't mind it.

There was still that undercurrent of anger he felt from Steve as well. Tony looked at the low glow of the city's crystals in the distance. He promised to show Steve the stars and now... now he'd messed everything up.

Sam met them on the ledge of the building. "Steve?" Tony asked, because making sure Steve was alright was now a priority. If Steve wasn't here to meet him, then where-

"He's not here," Sam said apologetically, herding Tony to the dining hall as Wanda took off again. It was big and dragon-sized, but Tony never minded eating on the floor and the dragons would sit with him rather than at the daises that were too big for him. "But you need to eat before you fall over. We tried 'cooking' some of the meat for you, but I think Sharon got a little overly-enthusiastic."

"Why?" Tony asked. "You're still angry at me."

"We're still angry at your dumb ass, yeah," Sam agreed, though he didn't really feel as angry as he had been. He pushed a plate that held lightly burnt meat and vegetables towards Tony. "But you're our friend and you've had a hard day. And Steve..."

"He's not here," Tony said. He hoped the pain in his head dulled the hurt in his voice. He was abandoned again.

"He's a dumb ass too sometimes," Sam said with open amusement. "But Steve is also special. You know that, right?"

Tony took a bite of the meat. It was a little unevenly cooked, but edible. "I know," Tony said. There was just something that set Steve apart from the other dragons. He was _good_ and Tony felt small and inadequate next to him. Steve was smart and funny and all of the dragons here loved him. He worked so hard for the city all his life when Tony had spent most of his life doing nothing but searching for a cure to his failing heart. Steve made him want to be better.

"He bonded with you," Sam said, tail curling around Tony's feet. "Which means you're also something special. We look after each other here, and that means you now, too."

Tony looked down. He didn't deserve their friendship. "Just eat," Sam said, rubbing Tony's cheek with his claw as he sent along feelings of genuine affection that shocked Tony down to his core. He knew Steve was fond of him, but the others...

"I thought you were supposed to be some kind of genius or something in those stories of yours," Sam said, lightly shoving Tony's shoulder with his wing. "Of course we do."

"Thanks," Tony said, quietly finishing his meal. He pet Sam's head when it got close enough, and he could feel the happiness radiating off the dragon like a cat purring.

He was half asleep by the time he made it through the meal, and his headache was only getting worse. He wanted to check on Steve, but he hurt a little too much already. He went up to the roof when Sam prodded him, surprised to find it wasn't empty. "Steve!"

He barely noticed Sam leaving as he went up to Steve, his legs nearly buckling under him. "Where did you - Holy smokes, you're _freezing_." Steve _had_ been someplace cold and dark, not just sulking in his memories.

Tony threw his arms around Steve's neck, giving the dragon what warmth he could. Steve curled around him, cold cheek rubbing against Tony's warm one. His headache faded to a manageable level; he suspected it was Steve's influence.

"Where the hell were you?" Tony asked. "You were the one who told me to wait till morning, what did you - How did you end up so cold?"

"Wasn't looking for Viper," Steve said, shivering lightly under Tony's hands. "Was looking for this."

He brought up his claw for Tony to see. "That's..." Tony reached out, taking the small crystal in his hands. There was a smokey section at the base where Tony had broken it off from the ceiling. This was the crystal he'd lost in the caves. "Steve-"

"That's one thing that's different," Steve said. "You didn't have it in the vision. We've already changed it, even if just a little."

It glowed softly, giving off a faint light that Tony could only just make out. He couldn't believe it. "You went to get it back," Tony said. He turned the crystal in his hands as his throat pinched strangely. He swallowed hard. "Steve, those caves were freezing! Why did you go back there?"

"You wanted to change what you saw. We just changed part of it, so you _can_ change the rest," Steve said, curling his tail around Tony's waist as if to pull more of Tony's warmth into himself.

"I didn't need you to prove that to me by pulling this sort of damned idiotic stunt!" Tony rubbed what he could reach of Steve's scales to create more friction. "You need to go down and sit by the lava baths. Come on, you-"

"I'd rather stay here," Steve said, tail keeping Tony in place.

"Steve, you're freezing to death! That kind of cold is bad for dragons!"

"It's bad for most dragons," Steve corrected. "The magic made me stronger. It doesn't hurt me."

It just brought up a lot of bad memories, Tony surmised. "You should get warm," he insisted.

"You make me feel warmer than the lava baths."

Tony didn't know how to respond to that. Instead he leaned against Steve's flank to give the dragon what warmth he could. He clutched the crystal against him, tracing Steve's star crest with his free hand.

"How can you..." Tony started to ask, then stopped himself. Steve had gotten the crystal to make Tony feel more at ease and still wanted to stay out here with him instead of going in where it was warmer. But Tony could still feel the tightly coiled anger. "You're still angry."

"Yes," Steve said. "You... you lied to me. I can understand why, because it's... I see more now about humans, now that we're bonded. But it still hurts."

Tony was expecting the anger, but the disappointment was new. And it hurt. Steve's disappointment was almost worse than the anger, and it made him feel so small.

He fisted his hands. "Right," Tony said, trying to detangle himself from Steve's limbs. "I'll go-"

"Don't leave," Steve said, distressed.

"You left me before!" Tony shouted, pulling away more forcefully. Steve let him go. "You left when I woke up, then again when Wanda brought me back. And now you're asking me to stay?"

Shame replaced the disappointment. "Tony," he said, the name sounding full and rounded. It took Tony a moment to realize Steve had used both his given name and the dragon name-feeling at the same time. "I'm sorry."

It still stung, that Steve hadn't stayed around. Tony didn't know what all this bonding situation was about, but leaving the others to explain to him and not being there... it hurt a lot more than Tony wanted to admit.

"I was scared," Steve admitted, his tail reaching back towards Tony before it stopped and curled around Steve miserably.

"Why were you-" Tony broke off, feeling the anguish and loss of Steve's bond with Bucky. The broken ache that never left, waking up to chase after traces of it in his mind, only to realize there was no one at the end of it. Empty. Hollow. Half of what he should be.

Tony's knees gave out, but Steve darted closer, catching him before he fell. Tony had to blink back tears at the sheer grief. "Tony?" Steve said uncertainly, fear and worry clouding his thoughts.

Tony took a deep breath. "I'm fine. Just - warn a fella next time."

"Do you want me to let go?"

After that, Tony just wanted to let Steve curl around him and never leave again. He shook his head, petting Steve's neck. "It was intense," Tony said.

"Do humans not share emotions?" Steve asked.

"We can't, remember? I think we also don't hold on to them as long as dragons do. At least, not for some things." He leaned against Steve's flank, pressing his forehead into the dragon's shoulder. That feeling terrified him more than he would have thought possible. If he couldn't fix this...

"How do humans live like that?" Steve asked, slightly horrified.

Tony was glad for the distraction. "It's good and bad." Good, because feeling his father's anger and madness would have left his childhood with an even bigger scar. Bad, because he wondered how much strife would be avoided with that kind of empathy.

Steve's tail came up hesitantly, lightly resting against Tony's hips. Tony petted it, which was apparently all the permission Steve needed for a tighter grip.

"I'm sorry for leaving," Steve said. "I shouldn't have, especially not because I was angry and scared. I... probably would have felt better, staying with you. And you wouldn't have been left behind."

Tony was used to being left behind if he were honest with himself. Maybe that was why it hurt so much when even Steve left. It was really hard to stay angry in the face of all of Steve's emotions though. He could still feel the grief and the anger, and he tried not to think about what that meant. "I'm..."

"Stop," Steve said. "You've already apologized. And just because I'm angry doesn't mean I stop caring about you."

"I'm not used to this," Tony said, hiding his now burning face in Steve's shoulder. "Feeling everything constantly. It's like I still..."

"I know. I'm sorry," Steve said.

Tony felt a brief brush against his mind, then the anger noticeably lessened, though Tony could still feel it when he concentrated. "What did you-"

"Is this better?" Steve asked. "I don't want to hide it, but I guarded it like you do. Not all the way, but it seemed to be overwhelming you."

"Thank you," Tony said, his voice thick. "I don't know what to make of this 'bond'. It's... not what I expected."

"Do you wish you hadn't connected?" Steve asked uncertainly. He stilled underneath Tony, carefully not focusing on the hurt.

Tony wanted to lie and reassure Steve, but he didn't think it was really an option to bluff this close to the dragon. "If I'd been thinking? No," Tony said finally. "I would never... It's a little terrifying how invasive it is. The fact that it doesn't bother me as much as it should gives me the creeps. I'm not the sort of person who shares easily, Steve."

He could feel Steve's hurt. One bond ripped away and another that didn't want him. "No, Steve, that's not-"

"I know," Steve said, trying to keep his voice light, but failing. "Tony, these feelings are not your fault. They aren't always logical."

"I caused them," Tony said.

"You caused my anger," Steve replied. He tugged at Tony until the adventurer was against his chest. "But I can understand why you did it and have forgiven you, even if I'm still angry. My insecurities about the bond aren't caused by you, and neither are your fears of sharing emotion."

"How do you do this?" Tony asked, shaking his head. "Live your life knowing when you've hurt someone and feeling that?"

"It's hard to think of living anyway else," Steve replied, a claw running through Tony's hair. It felt nicer than Tony would have thought and Steve was very careful of his claws. "Is this how humans hurt each other so much, like in your memories of the War?"

"Maybe," Tony said. He pat the tail still wrapped around him only to realize his hands were shaking. "It's easier to hurt someone if you're only thinking of yourself."

Which is what he'd done with Virgil and Pepper by chasing after the cure for his heart. How he'd hurt Rhodey and Jarvis by ignoring their advice and not thinking with a clear head. He took too many risks. He wasn't like Steve who protected the city because he wanted to help people. Tony was fighting the War to fix his father's sins and his own idiocy. There was no redemption for men like him, no matter how much he chased after it. Maybe that was the problem. After all this time, he was still running after something.

Red, gold, and gunmetal grey. Fire of the forge and passion. Science and the wonder of the unexplored. A lone star burning all alone in the moonless night.

"Steve," Tony said, feeling raw and vulnerable in ways that scared him more than even the cold darkness had. It was like Steve had seen into his soul then picked out pieces of it. Tony didn't understand how Steve could see all that despite all of Tony's faults. It was like the name was what Tony could be if he were actually-

" _Tony_ ," Steve said, curling tightly around him. He felt Steve's breath in his hair as the dragon rested his head atop Tony's. Tony felt the emotions rushing through him as Steve spoke, each one leaving him more shaken than the last. "You're so clever and brilliant. Half the things I see in your head I could never even begin to understand. And you're strong. You never let defeat stop you, always finding a new angle and doing anything to make it right, no matter the cost. You keep fighting even when you feel like you can't anymore. And after everything I've seen in your memories, you still care. You're a good person."

"You think so?" Tony asked. His voice shook; it was hard for him to breathe. He didn't think that was because Steve's tail was wrapped around his ribs either.

"You've shown me the stars in your memories," Steve said, as if that answered everything. "I won't let you argue."

Tony laughed. It was a small, hysterical little thing that sounded a bit too much like a sob, but it was genuine. The sheer amount of stubborn rolling off Steve brooked no arguments, and Tony was too tired to even try.

Steve laid down on the dais and Tony sat against him. It didn't take long for them to fall into their usual positions with Steve's wing covering them and his head in Tony's lap. Steve was still shivering lightly, but not too badly.

Tony looked out over Steve's wing at the dragon crystals that hung over the buildings. They lit up the houses below, but the city itself was quiet. Too quiet. There were always songs and music till late at night with the dragons flying to and fro over head to visit. Most times Tony was lulled to sleep by the soft hum of the city.

There was no music now. And though the lights were still on, no dragons save for the few under Steve's command were left in the city. Even during the blitz, London never felt this empty. It unnerved him. 

"I've never lived anywhere else," Steve admitted quietly, and Tony could feel a light bit of shame that came from comparing himself to Tony's travels, which baffled Tony. There was also a fear in Steve's voice that Tony hated, and an acceptance that Tony refused to believe. "If the city falls-"

"We'll fix it," Tony said, putting some of his own stubbornness into his words. "You'll protect the city and I'll get rid of that hydra. If something breaks, we can fix it. Rebuild."

"You have to return to the War."

"The War will end." Tony squeezed Steve's tail lightly in reassurance. "It has to end some time."

"And you'll be home for... is it Christmas? Is that the word?" Steve teased, but the melancholy of his tone pervaded. "They need you more, Tony."

"I won't let the vision happen then." Tony projected a cocky and self-assured feeling, but Steve saw right through it.

Steve raised his head to rub Tony's cheek. "We'll change it. You'll find away. You're the genius, right?"

"No pressure then." Tony pet Steve's head, listening to the dragon's breathing.

"And I'll come up with a strategy to fight it," Steve said. He raised his wing slightly so Tony couldn't see the city. It didn't work to put the discomfort out of his mind, but Tony appreciated the effort. "Now rest. We'll visit the temple in the morning."

"Steve," Tony said. "About the bond, I..."

"I know," Steve said, sighing softly as Tony scratched behind his horn. "We both have reservations about it. But I'm glad it's you."

Tony let out a breath. He still didn't know if the bond was good or bad, but at least it was Steve.

"And now I'll be able to call you," Steve said, his voice fond. "No matter where you are up there, I can tell you how to find us again."

"And then I can show you the stars. The real ones, not just the memories in my head," Tony promised. "A proper sky out in the country where you can actually see without the smoke."

"I can see them through your eyes too, if you'll let me."

"You'll see them for yourself."

"Yeah," Steve said, fear settling into a soft hope that Tony felt envelop him. "After the War ends."

"After the War ends," Tony said, for the first time in a long time really considering it.

* * *

"You're a failure, Tony."

Tony flinched. The heart pump was failing. It was hard to pull air into his lungs. Gasping, he blinked hard and saw his father - no, Zemo. Dad was dead. Before him was Baron Zemo of Hydra. "You're... You died. I killed..."

"You failed to kill me," Zemo said, stepping forward as Tony tried to move back. "Just like you failed to protect that writer of yours. And you'll fail to protect the dragon city as well. It is a foregone conclusion, my son, and Hydra will take the dragon's knowledge for their own now."

There was a roar in the distance, one Tony had heard in the vision. The hydra! He screamed as he felt teeth tearing into his wing - _Steve's_ wing. He was feeling Steve's pain. "Steve!"

"You're a failure," Zemo said. "But not for much longer. Soon you will take over as the next Zemo, and Hydra will make sure you will succeed for us."

"No," Tony said. He struggled, trying to throw the Hydra soldiers off as Zemo stepped closer with a needle. He couldn't move. "No. Steve-"

Zemo leaned over him, bringing the needle closer to his eye as-

The Hydra soldiers holding him down vanished and Tony stumbled back as his heart started to beat normally again. There was another roar, but this time it wasn't the hydra. It was Steve.

His tail lashed in fury as fire spewed from his throat, burning Zemo and the remaining soldiers. His wings spread, teeth bared and a fierce gleam in his eyes that shone with vengeance. He slashed Zemo with his claws and Tony watched as Da - as Zemo fell back.

"Steve?" he asked. He could breathe again, despite the now fading fire. "Your wing-"

"Is fine, see?" Steve's voice was gentle, in sharp contrast to the ferocious growl he'd given Zemo. He lifted his wing for Tony to see, mantling over Tony as he reached out, touching the soft, thin scales to make sure. "Tell me about the stars," Steve said, blocking Tony from view of what remained of Hydra.

Tony swallowed, his voice thick. "Zemo-"

"Is gone." Steve used his tail to pull Tony closer, claw gently brushing through his hair. "Tell me about the stars. Please? I'd like to hear about the bears again."

"Callisto," Tony said slowly, his thoughts clouding over. He needed to-

"And Jupiter?" Steve prompted.

"He had an affair with her," Tony said, leaning against Steve as he looked up at the stars. It was a good night and the big dipper was clear in the sky. The perfect night to finally show Steve the stars. It wasn't even too cold despite it being spring.

"It didn't go over well with his wife, Juno," Tony continued, fading back to a dreamless sleep.

* * *

Tony woke feeling rested. He had a minor headache, but it wasn't too bad. There was a vague memory of a bad dream and the stars, but it was gone by the time he shook his head.

Steve's head was in his lap, a soft rumbling in his throat that Tony equated to dragon snoring. His mind was open and relaxed, and Tony got the impression of a lot of food when he pet Steve, most of it meat. Given how much Steve ate, even compared to the other dragons, Tony couldn't say he was surprised. It was, however, greatly entertaining to know what Steve dreamed of when it wasn't a nightmare.

He chuckled softly, looking at what he could see of the cavern ceiling over Steve's wing. The moss was just starting to glow, but Steve had shifted in his sleep, covering more of Tony than normal so it was hard to get a good view. Tony reached out and ran his hand over the wing in front of him, oddly soothed at the motion.

They needed to get started if they wanted to search the temple. The dragon crystal wouldn't need much more charging from the moss light and they had to find Viper before then. Steve was probably pretty hungry too if he was dreaming of food

Tony stayed one more moment in the safe cocoon before tapping Steve's head insistently.

"Go 'way," Steve said, his eyelids squeezing further together.

"Come on, sleepy head. We've got work to do today."

"No." Petulance didn't really begin to cover Steve's half-asleep tone. His tail was wrapped firmly around Tony's waist and his wing came up to hide Tony entirely from view.

"Steve, I know you're hungry," Tony said, poking the dragon's cheek. "We've got to get going. You promised me an early start, remember?"

Tony felt Steve's throat grow hot, but there was no flame. Instead, Steve gave off the impression of 'not this early' without actually saying the words, the lazy bum, and he puffed a bit of smoke grumpily. Tony was an old hat at Steve's morning crotchetiness by this point, so he poked Steve again. "We have to find Viper today," he said. "No time for a lie-in."

Tony stood as well as he was able and pushed Steve's tail away. It was persistent in keeping him close, however, re-wrapping around him as Steve's wing continued to box Tony in. "Steve," Tony said, flicking Steve's snout in exasperation.

He got the impression of several very rude things about his non-existent dragon sex-life. He poked Steve again, and in retaliation he sent back equally rude insinuations about Steve's lineage. He'd been told several times by the dragons that insulting how one was born made no sense, but it got another snort out of Steve.

"I'm awake," Steve said, finally allowing Tony to move away. He did not sound happy about this fact. Steve shook his whole body and let out a small flame once Tony was clear, glaring at the glowing moss like morning was a personal affront.

"I'll meet you after breakfast," Tony said, making his way down. There was really no reasoning with the blue dragon before then.

Half an hour later when Steve's stomach was full and he was slightly more awake, he met Tony on the ground level. His wings were fidgeting and for some reason Tony couldn't fathom, he seemed hesitant. "Are you alright?" Steve asked as Tony finished up his berry salad.

"Fine," Tony said, wiping up the last of the sauce with a kind of steamed bread that the dragons liked to eat for desert. One thing he'd say about dragon cuisine was that they did have some amazing sauces. "Something up?"

"You had a dream last night," Steve said.

"Don't remember it," Tony replied. Even the uneasiness from when he woke was gone, chased from his memory.

"Oh," Steve said. He felt a little taken aback by the admission and his wings fluttered out. "Is that normal for humans?"

Tony looked up and raised an eyebrow. "More or less. Do I want to know what kind of dream it was?" If it was a sex dream, it served Steve right. He was still awfully curious about what Tony looked like under his clothes.

"Just..." Steve waited for Tony's small nod, then rubbed his cheek. "You're not a failure."

Tony felt his shoulders stiffen in response and he looked away, finishing the last of his breakfast. "Course not," he said casually. "I run a million dollar company and fly in a metal suit. Plus I fight for the good guys. The good guys always win. Complete opposite of failing."

"That wasn't what the dream told you," Steve said, his mental voice serious.

"Doesn't sound like a nice dream." And Steve had obviously seen it. Part of him wanted to end the conversation. The other part was more than a little mortified, and he wanted to know what he'd done in the dream.

The former won out because he'd end up giving more away if he had to listen to the details. "I'm fine," he repeated with a shrug.

"Alright," Steve said, but his tail curled around Tony's feet. "We should get going if we want to find Viper."

Tony closed his eyes for a moment then stood. The others would watch over the city. He and Steve would be on their own to search the temple. "Alright," Tony said. "Let's go get my armor."

* * *

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Mem: Steve is such an epic sulker in any universe. Also, MAGIC. *jazz hands* Sorry. I had a bit much fun with that. No apologies for all the cuddles though. There are no regrets on that account.


	5. Chapter Five

Steve helped him refuel the armor jets with something that wasn't petroleum. Though it still smelled like petrol, the substance was greener; however, the dragons had done nothing to refine the substance, and it shouldn't work for the armor's jets. Tony was extremely skeptical, but he humored Steve who was insisting it would work after the dragon did some sort of energy transference to it and what was left of the normal fuel, surprisingly enough the rockets ran like a charm. Tony refused to ask, because the last thing he needed to think about was that his suit was running on _magical substances_.

Steve wisely said nothing when Tony stopped telling him all the reasons it wasn't possible. It could all wait until after the War. Then he could think about all the different kinds of energy.

The temple was easy enough to find and much faster to get to than when Tony was going by foot. He landed with a clunk in the empty courtyard where he'd dropped Viper off. Steve had a lot more trouble with the trees as he tried to drop down, and Tony could feel his frustration as yet another branch scratched him.

"I don't like the look of this place," Steve said, looking around at the metal walls. "It feels like dark powers rest here."

"You're just saying that because dragons don't like metal," Tony said. He had his helmet strapped to his waist, and he took it in his hands. "I'm going to have to put this on, you know."

"It's easier to sense you now with the armor on," Steve said, though it was clear he still didn't like it. "I think I could hear you now if you tried to speak to me mind to mind even if you're far off."

"When I figure that out, I'll let you know," Tony replied. He looked around the courtyard but saw nothing of use. There was only the tall tower that reached up into the trees, but he was placing his bets on the structure also going underground.

"You do it all the time. It's just like when you were with Wanda, but I still heard what you said."

"What?"

"The sounds you make don't translate, though they are interesting to listen to. We hear what you say from your mind," Steve explained.

"Huh." It followed that if he said something while thinking of Steve, it should send. He gave it a short test. " _Hello?_ " It felt strange and took more concentration than Tony would have guessed.

"Hi," Steve said, his nostrils flaring. "I wouldn't try too hard for that right now though. You don't want to repeat yesterday's weakness. Take it slowly."

"Talking works for now since I guess it sends so long as I actually speak it aloud," Tony said, waving it off. They could figure it out later. "Viper's not out here, or we would have given ourselves away. That means she's further in or not here at all."

"I can check the top," Steve said, eying the branches of the trees.

"You sure? You had problems getting down-"

Steve launched himself into the tree, using the same sort of jump that dragons used to get airborne. But his wings were tightly folded against his back instead of spread and his claws were out, gripping the side of the tree. Tony held back a laugh as Steve scaled the tree, sometimes resting on a thicker branch for a moment before pressing onward.

"It's not that amusing," Steve said.

"It is, actually. Do you know how you're going to get down?"

Steve's reply had no words. It was very rude though, and Tony was given the impression that no, getting down had not been in Steve's original plan. He was sadly too high up to stop now.

Tony bent over laughing, the suit barely holding him up. He couldn't stop even if he tried, and if he were being honest, it was something he probably needed after he'd been abandoned in the dragon crystal cave. It felt good to laugh.

"And now they all know we're here, thanks to your noise," Steve grumbled as he reached the top. He peered into the tower, sticking his head through one of the windows.

"To be fair, the suit isn't really meant for stealth," Tony said as he wiped the tears from his eyes. "I'll just have to look imposing to scare them away."

He crossed his arms in front of his chest. That always looked intimidating when he was in the suit, but Steve seemed distinctly unimpressed. Given that Tony had just been laughing at Steve, he supposed that was well deserved. He hid a smile even if Steve couldn't see it.

"Find anything?" he called out.

"I don't think the upper parts of the tower have anything in them," Steve replied. "It's just a bunch of small rooms with stairs, and all this metal is giving me a headache."

"You might as well come back down. If you can, that is." Tony grinned. Steve was sending him some very offensive images of his lack of sexual prowess. He learned more about dragon sex through Steve's grumpiness than he cared to think about. "I don't insult your performance issues."

"No. Just my mother and father and if they were 'married'?" Steve said as he pulled his head out of the building. He made a small noise of frustration and a puff of smoke as he looked down at the nearest branch. "That's not going to hold me."

"I'd offer to help, but you're too big of a kitten for me to get out of this tree," Tony said, stifling another laugh.

Steve's head went down and his wings moved in agitation before he packed them back against his back. He jumped to a branch that was a bit too far below him and Tony winced in empathic pain. Steve finally managed a half glide, half hop down to the ground, but not without several new scratches and a bruise or two from bumping into the metal walls of the temple.

"You alright?" Tony asked as he moved over to Steve, feeling a few of the aches and pains.

"Most of it's easy to heal," Steve said with another puff of smoke and a sigh. "I didn't see anything worth investigating up there."

Tony looked towards the door of the temple, knowing that Steve wasn't going to like it. "Then I'll have to take a gander inside to see if it goes below ground."

Predictably, Steve's tail wrapped around his feet. Tony felt a small pang that he couldn't feel it through the armor. "You can't go in there by yourself."

"This temple's not made for dragons," Tony said, wondering who _did_ make it. It was old - really old. Just the sort of place Hydra would take over and repurpose , but never build for themselves. Old, magical, and with biddable monsters within.

Steve's tail stubbornly moved up to Tony's waist. "Tony..."

"Steve," Tony replied. "You can't go in there with me and you know it. The metal wouldn't be good for you even if you could fit in the doors, and someone has to go in there or your home will be destroyed. I've done this before. I'll be fine."

"You were alone in the vision," Steve said, his wings drooping with unhappiness. "You can't fight that thing alone."

"I'll draw it out somehow," Tony said, looking around. Drawing out a creature that big would probably destroy the temple, but Tony found he wasn't too displeased by the notion as he might normally be for destroying something that old. Steve was right. There was something foreboding about the place. While he'd like to study how it was made and why, Tony couldn't help but wonder if destroying it wouldn't be the best course of action for everyone. Somethings men didn't need to know.

Steve still didn't let go. Tony could feel the anxiety Steve was giving off. The cave in the vision had been _dark_.

"Come here," Tony said, his voice soft.

Steve hesitantly lowered his head and Tony took it in his hands. The amount of trust Steve placed in him by allowing it momentarily blinded Tony. Steve hated the armor and he knew about the weapons in the gauntlets. The metal alone could harm him so easily. But he let Tony hold him despite the metal giving him some minor discomfort for being that close.

He leaned down, pressing his forehead against Steve's. "You won't lose me like you lost Bucky, I promise," Tony said, his lips brushing against Steve's snout.

"Tony?" There was confusion in Steve's voice, reminding Tony of exactly why he was packing that part of him away. Steve was a dragon. It would never work between them, and he ignored the part of him that said he was willing to live without the more sexual side of a relationship for it. Steve was just so _good_. He was everything Tony wished he could be and more. He was grumpy in the mornings and curious about the upper world, wanting to learn about it as much as Tony did about the dragons. He was gentle with the young dragons and he had a dry sense of humor that Tony appreciated more than he'd care to admit. He was so stubborn that Tony wanted to strangle him sometimes, but a flair of his nostrils and the warmth of his tail made Tony give in. It was hard not to fall a little bit in love with Steve, no matter how much Tony knew it would only lead to heart break.

Tony shook his head, pulling away reluctantly. "We've already changed the vision," Tony said. He pointed to the small crystal he'd taken during their dance. It was hooked around one of the cooling flaps with a small rope from his kit. He'd made the hole himself this morning as it charged. "It'll be different."

Slowly Steve's tail unwound from Tony's waist. He rubbed his cheek against Tony's before pulling away. "Stay in contact," Steve said. "I'll look in when I can, but I need to keep an eye out here in case of attack."

Tony nodded, unhooking the helmet from his side. With one more small smile for Steve, he put it on.

"Tony?" Steve asked.

"I'm here," Tony replied, watching the HUD boot up. 100% power and 95% fuel, magical or other wise. He refused to think on it further. "You can hear me?"

"I can see the inside of your machine," Steve said, his voice awed. "It's not what I expected. It seems so... small in there."

"Not for the claustrophobic," Tony said. He pat Steve's flank once more before giving him a sloppy salute and walking towards the door.

"Be careful," Steve said as Tony walked inside.

"Of course," Tony said, intentionally not thinking of every lecture from Rhodey and Jarvis about being reckless. He got the feeling Steve knew anyway.

It was dark inside. He was glad for the little crystal that had charged in the morning's light, because while he'd made some headway in night vision and thermographic technology, it still didn't beat normal light. He carried a moss lamp as well, which he lit and got a better look at the interior of the temple.

It had none of the bright paint and colors that the dragon buildings did, or even the colors and patterns Tony had come to expect from this side of the world. It was all the same dark, strange metal, with a rust the color of dried blood that creeped up the walls. "Pleasant place," Tony muttered, feeling Steve's unease as well as his own.

The room had long windows that didn't let in much light. Definitely no sign of life, human or other wise. No decorations on the walls, or drawn warnings. It was one of the strangest temples Tony had ever been in, despite the layout being similar to Southeast Asian temples he had visited during his adventures in that part of the world. Just cold metal.

Tony had worked with metal all his life and never felt afraid of it. Right now though, he was starting to understand Steve's distrust of it.

There was an altar in the back of the temple that Tony walked towards, ignoring Steve's fretting over stealth. The suit was never made for hiding, and he'd like to see a massive blue dragon be any better at it.

Steve's muttering stopped after that, but Tony got the impression dark blue was good for hiding in the shadows.

"Just not good at hiding either, are you?" Tony said, examining the altar. He ran his hand along the metal, then blew the dust off his gauntlet. Viper was terrible at dusting. Bending down to check under the altar garnered him some laughing from Steve, which he figured he deserved after laughing at Steve getting stuck in the tree. In his defense, he never actually took the suit with him to explore temples.

Finding nothing under it, he looked at the raised podium. That was suspiciously less dusty, but there were no buttons on it. Which meant something was moved from it. Tony didn't particularly like the implications of that. It usually meant someone had taken the treasure beforehand, and in this case, whatever 'treasure' that might be in here was potentially lethal.

There was another spot on the wall that caught Tony's attention. It was hard to tell with the dark metal, but there was a small path behind the altar that wasn't completely seamless.

"Someone's been here," Tony said, looking at the floor. It was swept clean, and Tony had some suspicions as to why.

" _Viper?_ "

"Hopefully only her," Tony said. She was just as trapped down here as he was, unless she had another way out. In which case, he was in a lot of trouble if she managed to call for Hydra reinforcements.

He pressed down on the wall where it looked like an indentation. Nothing happened. He looked around again to make sure, but everything appeared to be the same.

" _Maybe it's not a button?_ " Steve said.

"You should be paying attention to your surroundings," Tony said as he looked at the button thoughtfully. "And my gut says it is. I've been in enough forgotten temples to know a secret passage when I see it. I just need to figure out _how_ it works."

He pressed the button again, this time not letting up on it. Then he looked around for another button. Maybe there were two?

" _Have you looked on the ground?_ " Steve asked hesitantly when Tony had looked over the wall and found nothing.

Tony looked down, leaning over as best he could to get a better view. "I think you're on to something," Tony said, following another small crack. He was reminded again why he never wore the armor to explore. That, and things ended up destroyed more often than not.

Carefully, he put his foot on one side of the crack and his hand on the wall. Nothing happened, but he held still.

" _Are you sure it's not just_ -" Steve started to say.

A click came from the altar and Tony grinned. "I told you," he said, stepping away from the wall. He pushed the altar forward, then pulled it back when it didn't give. The latter worked and revealed a menacing-looking staircase that went down underneath the temple. "Yay! Secret passage!"

" _I don't like it,_ " Steve said, his voice uneasy.

"You don't like any of this." Tony picked up the lantern and gave the room one last look around. There was really no choice but to go down.

The moss lamp reflected off the metal as he descended, and Tony noticed there was no rust down here. He touched the side of the wall as he went down, wishing he could actually feel the metal to guess at its properties. He kept a careful watch on the steps. Be it booby traps or simply poor upkeep, Tony had learned the hard way that ancient stairs were not to be trusted.

They went down deep, spiraling so he couldn't see around the corner. It unnerved him, since anyone could hear him coming from miles away, but he'd never be able to see it. Still, he kept a look out, taking the stairs one at a time.

Finally he came to a door. Unlike the rest of the temple, this one was made of wood and the metal around it gave way to stone. He could feel Steve's relief at that, though it felt a bit distant.

At least the door seemed fairly straightforward. No locks or hidden traps that he could see. Just the door waiting to be opened and whatever lay on the other side.

" _Be careful_ ," Steve repeated.

"I'm fine." Tony didn't quite snap, but he was getting close. Steve backed off with a meek apology and Tony sighed. He wished he could rub his temples, but the suit stopped that right enough. He didn't apologize, instead slowly opening the door as he peered around it.

The room was dark and Tony brought the moss lamp up when the thermographic equipment wasn't giving him much. The entire room was like a larger stone version of the one up top, but without the windows. And instead of being empty, on the podium of the altar sat a red object that was hard to make out. It was the only bit of color in the room. This room felt even older than the metal temple and it gave Tony chills.

"No one here," he said, walking forward. As he moved closer, the moss lantern's light filled the room. The red object turned out to be a skull of some kind.

" _Tony?_ "

"It's just a skull," Tony said, swallowing hard, feeling a sense of trepidation. "A red one."

And what was the coincidence of that? Still, at least it didn't look alive. Reports of the Red Skull said he did have actual flesh, and he hadn't looked like a bone skull in Steve's memories. Come to think of it, there had been a skull giving off light in the vision. This one wasn't glowing though.

He felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand up as he moved closer. There were no decorations ornamenting the stone, nothing but the skull. He glanced around again looking for any sign of life, but there was none. He looked back at the skull, feeling irresistibly drawn closer.

The skull gleamed in the light of the moss lantern, giving off an eery glow that hadn't been there before. What if it was the Red Skull's remains? He was the one who started Hydra during the Great War. Except Hydra didn't die with him. It spread, taking over his father and who knows how many others. Tony hadn't even noticed the change. He'd lived with his father for two years after the war and no one had noticed.

The armor wasn't up to his father's standards either. Hydra had torn his armor apart at Castle Donar. He'd been using the designs his father had made, but his additions never seemed like enough. Tony had always been in his father's shadow. Nothing he made ever did as well as the designs of his father's, and his father never let him forget that either. Sometimes Tony wondered if that was the reason he chased after ancient artifacts, so as to be good at something his father never done. It felt more like running away.

Everything he'd done in his life had been for selfish reasons. There was nothing Tony could do to fix that, no matter how he fought in the War. Every day more people were dying. Innocent people and children. Boys barely old enough to go to war, and genocide for thousands of people if they didn't fight in this. Tony was one man, but he couldn't stop the War. He couldn't go when the government was asking for scientists, insisting he could do more good than just sitting on his hands all day to build weapons. He wouldn't even give them the suits. What if that was a mistake? What if he could have ended the War by now?

And now he'd been playing around with the dragons while the War raged on. People were _dying_ and he was living the high life. Pepper, Rhodey, and Jarvis were still fighting without him, possibly dead already. He was failing them. Just like he failed at everything. He couldn't-

" _ **Tony!**_ "

Tony flushed with shame. Steve had been listening to all of that and knew his faults. Steve had bonded with the human who would destroy his home. Tony would fail again and-

" _ **Tony** , listen to me_," Steve said, his voice urgent. " _You've helped so many people. You've never failed me or them. When you were dreaming, you were terrified, but the first thing you asked was about my wing that you thought was hurt. You care so much, Tony. And you're so smart. You use that to help people. And you're so brave, doing whatever it takes to save them. Tony, I admire so much about you. I'm honored to be bonded to you and you've helped me so much. None of what that skull is making you think is true._

 _"You have to fight it, Tony! You're not a failure._ " Tony clung to the words, only half-believed. He wasn't...

" _You are, Tony. I've been so cold since Bucky died. You saved me from that. I can't-_ "

Tony felt Steve's pain, claws tearing into the dragon's shoulder. It snapped him out of the daze the skull had put him in and he turned to race back to Steve. But he couldn't turn, and his arms pulled as he tried to move. "Steve! What-"

"You fall into my traps so easily, Mr. Stark."

 _Viper._ Tony looked over in shock to see Viper standing in front of him. The skull was nowhere in sight and he should have shot the damn thing considering what he'd seen in the vision. He cried out as his arms were pulled further apart. Dark red tentacles were holding him in place. When did that happen?

"It's pathetic how easily you fell into the skull's trap," Viper continued, placing a hand on her hip as the green dress brushed against her ankles. "Though you are resilient. Better than most men I have left to die."

Tony looked up, trying to follow the line of the tentacles. That was when he finally saw the skull hanging in the air above him. The eight tentacles that held him in place came out from the bottom of it and Tony felt sick as one of them reached around the joints on his neck.

He really hated tentacles.

"You don't have to do this," Tony forced himself to say, not thinking of the tentacles as he swallowed back the bile. At least he was in the armor this time. "Why are you following Hydra? You have to know what they do in their experiments! Why go from big game stealing to them?"

"You are naive," Viper said, her voice hard. "Hydra will create the world as it should be where the strong will rule. The unworthy will be rooted out. My Serpent Society is strong. It is only right we take our place in the new order."

Damn. He had to tangle with a true believer, didn't he? Whatever happened to the innocent priestesses who just took care of their temples? "Steve-"

"Your dragon is being dealt with," Viper said. "I gave Cobra your gun. He may not be a marksman, but a big, blue target is hard to miss."

Fear went through him as he tugged at the tentacles. They only pulled his arms tighter. "Steve, you've got to-"

Tony felt the pain in Steve's right wing as if he'd been gutted. He gasped, yanking on the tentacles that refused to budge.

"You can speak to him from here?" Viper asked, sounding surprised. "That must be how you survived before. I wonder, how would the ZEMO formula affect a mental link? If you and your dragon prove resilient again, Hydra might have more use for you. I don't think it's worth the effort of keeping you alive, however, not when I have my prize."

He couldn't focus on Steve to make sure the dragon was alright, not with Viper there. He had to break free some how. He yanked again on his arms, twisting his palm. It wasn't quite enough to get a good shot. "Where's the hydra?" he demanded to distract Viper and buy himself more time.

"You'll see soon enough," Viper said. She walked over to the wall and stood in the same place as the hidden buttons in the metal room. Instead of the altar clicking and becoming movable,the wall parted, showing a wide hall way. She beckoned, and Tony felt the skull beginning to move, walking with the tentacles that weren't holding him down. It also tightened around his gauntlet so he couldn't twist it.

He cursed softly. He really hated magic.

"Steve," he said as he kept trying anyway.

" _Here_ ," Steve said, though his voice was strained and weak.

"Are you-"

" _Can't talk now._ "

Tony pulled at the tentacles in frustration. He had to get out of here!

He was pulled into the long hall as Tony desperately worked out angles and how the hell tentacles were stronger than the armor. That was a completely unacceptable design flaw that he was going to remedy in the next upgrade. He shivered. _Tentacles_.

"Where are you taking me?" Tony asked, struggling helplessly and trying not to worry about Steve.

"Where you can be of use to us," Viper replied.

One day, he was going to get an answer that wasn't cryptic.

The hall opened up to a dark cavern. The moss lantern only lit up a small portion of the room, which Tony could see included a sharp ledge. The thermographic readings were telling him nothing, and he couldn't tell if it was magic or the stone that was sending it on the fritz.

A dragon crystal was near by. It was glowing faintly, but no where near the bright glow that meant it was fully charged. The skull marched him right up to it.

"Prove yourself loyal to Hydra now and I might keep you alive for the ZEMO chemical. The orichalcum and your armor would help us win this war," Viper said. She walked up to Tony and traced her hand down the chest of the armor. Tony was glad he was encased in it, his heart hidden from the world. Even still, he shivered at the threat, feeling cold.

She held up what looked like a Handy Talkie, a device completely out of place with the rest of her priestess outfit. It looked smaller than the United Nations' devices, and he narrowed his eyes at it. He didn't like it when the enemy had better tech than him.

"Cobra," she said. "Do you have the dragon captured?"

"Yess, Madame Hydra," came the reply.

"Steve?" Tony asked, his heart nearly stopping before the pump forced it on.

" _It's true. They attacked while I was talking with you,_ " Steve said, his voice distant and angry. " _He's got a gun and some friends, and I'm wounded. I can't..._ " At this, Steve actually sounded distressed and a little afraid. " _It's a metal muzzle._ "

Tony yanked at the tentacle fruitlessly, fury overtaking him. "Let him go!"

"I don't think so," Viper said. "He is more useful to me alive right now. I need him to ensure your loyalty, Mr. Stark."

Tony's hands curled into fists in the gauntlets. "You can keep on dreaming that, doll."

Viper just smiled, then raised her hand, palm facing outward in front of her.

His left arm was forced down by the tentacle holding it, and a second tentacle wrapped around his torso, pinning his arm to his side. Another tentacle positioned his right arm until he was aiming directly at the crystal.

"Charge the crystal for us, Mr. Stark. All it should take is a sustained blast from that weapon in your hand. We're on a tight schedule and I've been away too long as it is."

"No," Tony said, mouth set in a firm line.

She held up the HT device again. "Cobra, you know what to do."

Pain, sharp and vicious, arched up his back. He could hear Steve's roar through the HT and had to bite back his own scream.

"The Red Skull's notes were very clear on how the dragons reacted to metal," Viper said. "If you don't charge it, we will tear your dragon apart piece by piece until he dies, and you will follow soon after. I can bring back the suit, even if you prove too unreasonable."

" _I'm okay_ ," Steve said, though he didn't sound it. " _Tony, don't_ -"

More pain, this time in Steve's left leg. "Stop!" Tony shouted. "Stop hurting him!"

"Cobra, hold off," Viper said. "Well, Mr. Stark?"

He could feel Steve's fear of the metal surrounding him and the gripping sense of helplessness. The pain was nearly blinding despite the fact they hadn't started with the metal weapons yet, but Steve was trying to push it back for Tony's sake.

" _Tony, you can't..._ "

Tony closed his eyes, taking a deep breath. He remembered the sheer grief from Steve's nightmare and knew he couldn't go through that. "I'm sorry, Steve," Tony whispered, not wanting Viper to hear it. "I can't let them do it."

He felt Steve's anger and shame, though he couldn't tell who it was aimed at, himself or Steve. Tony swallowed, then let the repulsor power up. " _Tony, don't-_ "

He fired.

At first the light was small, but he kept up a continuous blast and soon it was nearly blinding. He could feel the strain it was putting on the reactor, but he didn't dare stop. He only stopped when the room started to shake and he heard Viper give a startled yell, his own breath heavy, and his heart pounding. A sharp pain went through his heart, but the heart pump held up, keeping the broken organ still beating.

The tentacles' grip loosened. Tony yanked free, stumbling forward as he clamped on to the flame thrower and fired at the tentacles. The thing shrieked, tentacles pulling away from the flames, and Tony could smell the burnt flesh through the suit's air filters. He held his hand up to fire the repulsors at the skull itself.

Pain. Deep, searing pain. Tony gasped and blinked away tears, pushing it down as he fired. He missed. He couldn't miss. He could change the vision. He had to destroy the skull now. It was retreating, so Tony repressed down the link and Steve's pain to take a last, clear shot.

The skull shattered into thousands of pieces as Viper screamed, and Tony had the great pleasure of watching the tentacles drop lifelessly to the ground, some of them still flaming.

The sound of bullets ricocheting off the armor reminded him of his other problem. He fired a low powered blast at Viper, but the ground shook again and threw them both off balance.

Tony knocked against the ground. The suit took most of the blow, but that didn't mean it was pleasant. He forced himself to his feet with a groan, grabbing Viper by the arm and dragging her up with a repulsor to her head.

"You fool! Do you know what you've done? Now nothing can control the beast!"

"No skin off my back," Tony said, holding her arm tighter.

"It won't save them," Viper said. She laughed, and it echoed through the cavern, cruel and wild. "It's already waking."

"Release the dragon," Tony said, the sound of the repulsor whining to life next to her ear.

"You're too late, Stark. You can't save them," Viper said.

" _Let him go_ ," Tony demanded.

"The HT is on the floor."

Tony risked glancing to the floor to see she was right. It was near the ledge and another quake shook it even closer as he kept a firm grasp on Viper to keep her from escaping. He pushed her forward, forcing her down where she could reach it. He didn't think of the pain Steve was in. He had to concentrate. "You have five seconds before I drop you over. I'm sure the hydra would appreciate a nice priestess for breakfast, regardless of authenticity."

Viper reached down and picked up the HT, glaring at him with her one visible eye. "Let the dragon go, Cobra," she said into the HT.

"But Madame Hydra, you said-"

"Do it," she hissed. "And stand well away from him when you do."

"Steve?" Tony asked.

He got strong anger in reply. Tony pressed his lips together, forcefully pushing the hurt down. It was his pain, not Steve's, this time. The nagas had been pressing Steve's wounds earlier, but now Tony could feel the bindings falling off Steve. It hurt to spread his wings, but he spread them threateningly.

But there was still something on Steve. "The muzzle too," Tony told her.

"He can take it off himself. I'm not risking my people," Viper spat.

"Wasn't this whole thing going to kill them all anyway?" Tony asked, baffled.

"There are secret places even the dragons do not know of. The hydra would have listened to-"

The next quake was bigger than the others. Tony stumbled back and Viper wiggled out of his grasp as rocks started to fall. "Kill the beast!" she yelled into the HT. "Hail Hy-"

A falling rock hit Tony on the head, and he fell forward. The last thing he heard was her scream.

[ ](http://angelinoshi.tumblr.com/post/120539806200/capimrbb2015)

* * *

Falling in the suit was marginally better than falling without the suit. Tony reminded himself of that when he groaned, knowing he'd have bruises from being knocked around so hard. Didn't feel like anything was broken, which was always a plus. Someone was talking to him, soft and repetitive, but Tony ignored the voice in favor of seeing if he could move.

Plus side: Tony wasn't buried under tons of rocks. Especially good considering he didn't think anyone could find him down here. He wasn't getting anything from the infrared, so that was still on the fritz, but the small crystal gave off a low light that let Tony see a little ways. He was glad it wasn't broken from the fall.

Finally, he tried focusing on the words, making them out to be Steve. " _Tony, wake up. Please talk to me. You've got to wake up. Tony-_ "

"So now you're talking to me," Tony said, slowly looking around the small space the light afforded him. The ground shook again, and he had a moment of panic before it subsided.

" _ **Tony**_." The relief in Steve's voice was like a warm current that swept him along. It confused him a little, since he remembered Steve being angry with him before.

"Not used to you waking _me_ up," Tony grumbled, uncertain of Steve's reactions.

" _You fell_."

Oh. That explained a lot. "I'm fine," Tony said, wishing he could put a hand on Steve's flank. Then he stood and _ow_. "Okay, maybe not fine-fine, but I've had worse. I can fly, ya know."

" _Then why didn't you?_ " Steve demanded.

"I... may have been knocked out before I fell." He looked around, but there was no sign of his least favorite priestess. "I'm okay, Steve. I aced out when I fell and my pride's the most bruised. What happened on your end?"

" _They let me go._ " Steve's voice was dull and empty as he said it, none of the self-righteous anger from earlier present. " _The nagas scattered when the earthquake hit. I sent up a signal for the others but... you fell._ "

"I'm sorry," Tony said with a wince. "I'm really trying not to make a habit of it."

" _I know_ ," Steve said. He felt shaken, and Tony could tell he was still hurt. Tony glanced up, wondering how many layers of rock and metal were between them. Too many. 

"Look, I fucked this up," Tony said. "That's on me. You should leave, Steve. I'll take care of the hydra. You and the others should get to safety."

For a long time, Tony didn't get a response. There was mounting anger from Steve though, and Tony wondered what he'd done this time.

" _You expect me to forgive you for waking the hydra to save my life, then tell me to leave when yours is in danger?_ " Steve asked, a dangerous undercurrent of anger to his tone.

"It sounds bad when you put it like that," Tony said weakly. "I had to try. Steve, I-"

" _I'll find you,_ " Steve promised.

Tony felt a brief caress against his mind and he closed his eyes, giving in. He doubted he could dissuade Steve if he tried. There was only so much he could do against that much stubborn. "The others?"

" _They'll be here soon,_ ," Steve said. " _Where are you?_ "

"I'm not sure," Tony said. He took a step forward, then stumbled as the ground shook. "Seems like the hydra is even grumpier than you when it wakes up."

" _You shouldn't be down there when it does wake up fully,_ " Steve said, a mounting frustration in his voice. "I can't... I can't enter the temple. _Can you find your way back up?_ "

Steve was conveniently omitting the vision where Tony knew he was going to fight it alone. But Tony didn't bring it up either. They were going to change it, no matter what. "I think there might be some stairs over here. I'll try those."

" _I thought you said you could fly,_ " Steve said, his normal cheekiness showing through his worry.

"I can," Tony said wryly. "And will be, if the ceiling's high enough, which I'm pretty sure it is. But the stairs lead to places like exits, so I'll follow them and assume it's not going towards a dead end."

" _Be careful_."

"Of course."

" _I don't believe you._ "

"Now you sound like Rhodey," Tony grumbled, but it was enough of a lie that he let it pass.

He hesitated before he took off. The last time he did this, he ended up with a headache. But if he kept it short... Tony closed his eyes and focused on Steve until he could see the temple courtyard. The muzzle lay on the ground, with enough distance between it and Steve that it had probably been thrown. It was still too close for Tony's comfort.

"Still here," Tony said, feeling how cold Steve felt. He could also feel all of Steve's aches, the bullet hole in his wing and the stab wound from the naga's fangs in his shoulder. The muzzle was gone, which relieved Tony so much that he wondered if it wasn't partially Steve's feeling. He didn't like the thought of Steve with a muzzle.

The ground got closer and Tony figured that Steve's head was down. "I know," Steve said.

Then Steve gave him what Tony could only call the mental equivalent of a hug. It was warm like laying in the grass on a sunny summer's day and Tony had to stomp down on the wistful longing.

"You should pay attention if the earth quakes keep up," Steve said.

"And you should try to heal yourself," Tony replied, but he pulled back. He missed the view of the forest already. Tony felt a slight headache and momentary dizziness, but it had been worth it.

He lifted off, following the stairs. They were suspended from the wall, which made Tony hesitant to trust the armor's weight on them, even if he did want to conserve some of the (non)magical fuel. There were dark vines and what looked like tree branches along them that Tony didn't trust either. They looked ominous, and plants that grew without any kind of light seemed like a bad sign.

He had barely been flying for a couple of minutes when he was slammed into the wall, evil-looking stairs catching his fall.

" _Tony!_ "

Tony rolled, then righted himself as he looked around. He saw the culprit flying across the way. He swore.

" _A gargoyle_ ," Steve said helpfully.

"You should be paying attention to your surroundings," Tony gritted out, firing a repulsor blast at the flying creature. It was a light blue with a disfigured human form, long wings, and a tail. Its form was lithe and agile, proving its skill by folding its wings to dodge the blast. When another blast proved too slow, he tried the guns on his shoulders.

He didn't want to waste too many bullets when the hydra was waking up too, but the repulsors were a fraction too slow to charge. He fired two rounds, hitting the thing right in the chest. It dropped like a log. "See? I handled it."

There was a loud, screeching noise down below, along with the sound of many flapping wings. Tony was suddenly very glad he hadn't landed on the apparent _nest_ of those things that were down here.

" _You were saying?_ " Steve said.

"I may have spoke too soon," he admitted, taking off again. On top of his list of things to upgrade, Tony added speed, because the bastards were gaining on him. He blindly shot downwards with the repulsors, this time hitting one if the shriek was anything to go by. He made the mistake of looking down. There was an army amassed below him.

" _Tony_ -"

"I can't be that far underground," Tony said, gritting his teeth. Aside from the science that said it just wasn't possible for him to fall and survive even with the suit, Tony couldn't have fallen too far. Unless Viper had picked up some actual magic down here and caught him too when she was trying to save herself, which he was not putting his survival down to.

Two minutes later, the sound stopped. Tony looked down again, not seeing the gargoyle army. There were a few flapping about, but they didn't come closer. Tony landed on a near by ledge, giving a passing glance at the stairs that branched out from either side. "I've got a bad feeling about this," Tony said.

The ground shook again and he could hear the screams of the gargoyles down below. " _Tony, get out of there!_ "

Tony agreed. He was just about to take off when the ground shook harder than before. Tony was no stranger to earthquakes, but this was by far the worst he'd been through and he shook in the armor. He fell, automatically grabbing the edge as more rocks began to fall, crushing the rocks on either side.

Then everything stopped. The quake, the noise, everything. Tony caught his breath, pulling himself back on the ledge. Was it over?

A terrifying roar answered his question. "I think the hydra's awake," Tony said, scrambling to stand. The ground shook again, but this time he was able to lift off before it got too bad. He heard the roar again behind him and looked down, catching his first glimpse of the hydra.

"Ah, hell." Tony fired the repulsors at the massive, ugly beast. It had three heads! Weren't they only supposed to start with one? What idiot had cut off the first two? He aimed for the eyes, shooting it straight through the head as he also fired with the repulsors. The hydra dodged the repulsors, but the guns were lethally effective. Too lethal. The head hung from the neck limply for a moment and Tony caught his breath. Did it work?

Tony realized he was also that sort of idiot as two heads replaced it. The two heads split the dead neck off, not even giving him a chance to cauterize the neck.

He landed on the ledge again, shooting repulsors and only making the thing angrier. It was too dark to see properly, but in the light of the small crystal he could see the four heads that tried to bite at him and the terrifically sharp teeth that he was sure would do more than just dent his armor. He tried the flame thrower next, aiming at one of the heads before the ground under him started to shake. Startled, Tony nearly fell off and only the flame thrower saved him from getting bitten in half as he tried to regain his footing.

He cursed as the ground moved again, thrusters catching him before he fell. He flew back and gave a small yelp as he tried to stabilize. His arm hit the edge of the platform painfully, but it righted him and he could finally see to fire. Four, no, _five_ heads. He'd been standing on one of them when he landed, which was why the ground was moving. In the crystal's light, he could see that the one he'd been standing on was chewing on a form that had blue wings and a tail that was hanging out of its mouth.

Relief flooded through him and it nearly got his head bitten off because he wasn't paying attention. A gargoyle, not a baby dragon. No red skull this time around either. But had he really changed things?

" _Tony, look out!_ "

Tony shot at the hydra's neck as he flew by with a rapid line of bullets, aiming the flame thrower at the neck that was now only barely clinging to the base by bits of skin. One of the other heads knocked into him and threw his aim off. He spun out of control, dropping about fifty feet before he righted himself, stomach flopping as he swallowed back his breakfast.

By the time he stabilized, two more heads were already in its place. "God damn it," he said, dodging a head that tried to snap off his leg.

" _Tony, bring the hydra up,_ " Steve said.

"You're _wounded_ ," Tony replied, calculating the rounds he had left verses the number of heads and knowing he didn't have enough.

" _The others are here. Do it!_ "

"Roger that," Tony said. He turned on the suit's oxygen supply and shot upward. He went as fast as the suit and his own body would let him, adrenaline racing through his veins as his vision started to grey even with the extra air. It was a rush like no other Tony had ever felt. He'd only gone this fast a few times and he got yelled at every time he had. He wasted oxygen he didn't have to let out a cry of exhilaration. He could feel Steve's wonder boosting the feeling, multiplying it as he pushed faster.

The impact alert started to wail at him, but Tony kept going. He could hear the hydra behind him, scaling the walls and trashing the crumbling stair case. He tilted his angle slightly, but kept going up. The hydra was fast and even at top speed he was barely ahead of it.

" _Tony, what are you_ -"

He shot replusor blasts at the ceiling then banked hard to the left at the very last second, turning again to go back down before he hit the other wall. The turn nearly caused him to black out, but he scrambled to remain conscious as he avoided the tangle of jaws that tried to snap at him.

But the monster's momentum carried it through and Tony could hear its pained roar as it hit the top. He slowed as much as he could, giving himself a chance to breathe.

" _-doing, Tony!?_ " Steve's voice rang in his mind as it cleared. He didn't have time to reply, however, as the ceiling started to cave in. Tony dodged not only the rocks and boulders that came down around him, but a massive hydra that was now falling back down to the ground. "Whoa," he said, narrowly avoiding a head that tried to bring him down with it. He watched for the few seconds as it fell before it disappeared into the darkness.

Tony looked up. He doubted that killed it and he didn't want to still be down here when it returned from licking its wounds. He spotted the opening of the stairs and made for it, recognizing the brightly glowing dragon crystal where he'd had his showdown with Viper.

He didn't have time to wonder again how the hell he'd gotten to the bottom of all that without killing himself, though he suspected magic on Viper's part which he could resent later. He flew through the stone temple and made his way to the metal stairs, which he was forced to take slowly. He was still nearly knocked down as the stair well shook.

" _Tony, get out of there!_ " Steve said, his voice bordering on frantic.

"That's the plan," Tony grumbled as he reached the top of the stair well. The metal altar room was a lot worse for the wear. Tony had to push away a fallen wall to get out and that was after slipping down a flight of stairs when a tremor caught him off guard.

The exit was also blocked by a massive tree, but he didn't have to push that one. Steve and Sharon were pulling it down.

Steve's relief hit him like one of his cars hitting a brick wall at the highest speed. Not one, but two tails wrapped around him to pull him out. "I can walk," Tony said, but he allowed the dragons to fuss over him. He could feel Sharon, but it was distant. Steve, on the other hand, took no time to wrap himself around Tony mentally and physically.

"I'm fine," Tony said as they both pushed him away from the temple. A little bruised and honestly, he'd had better emotional days, but mostly fine. "I'm okay. Just like I promised. Are you-"

"Fine," Steve replied. His wing was bloody from the gun wound, still unhealed and with leaves pressed against it like a bandage to stop the bleeding.

The ground shook violently and Tony fell forward into Steve's flank. The familiar blue in the dappled moss light was more comforting than Tony liked to admit.

"Come on," Peggy said, landing next to them. "We don't have time for dilly-dallying."

"The hydra-"

"Will be out soon," Peggy said grimly. "We're waiting for it on the eastern plains."

Steve rubbed his cheek against the armor helmet once before flicking his wings in agreement. "Let's go."

Tony moved a little ways off, firing the thrusters at fifteen percent. The canopy was thick, but between the dragons and the earthquakes there were plenty more holes to maneuver than there had been before. It was easy enough to get out as long as he took it slow.

The rest of Steve's city defenders were waiting for them as they emerged, and Tony saw with growing worry how the ceiling was shedding small rocks and crystals. If that collapsed, what would happen to the upper world? "That's not a good sign," he muttered to himself.

Steve landed at the front of the dragons, his chest puffed out so that his star crest was on display. "The hydra regenerates its head when cut off, and it's fast," Steve said, after a quick greeting to the others. "I want everyone in groups of two, one to cut off the head and the other to breathe fire on the stump. Sam, you're our rescue and healing. If you see someone in trouble, you get them out. Depending on how fast it is, we may need to switch to groups of three. Where's Wanda?"

"She's back at the murals," Sam replied. "Said there was something she wanted to try."

"Good," Steve said, shaking his wings. "Hopefully that will keep her safe."

Tony landed off to the side, scanning the cavern ceiling for more of the rocks that were falling. Small ones for now, but he did a quick calculation and realized the cavern had to cover at least a few cities on the surface. The way Steve was talking didn't help. He got a sense of resignation, and it made Tony feel like he was smaller, that he never should have come here. This was his fault...

"Whatever happens, we cannot allow it to get to the top world," Steve continued. "We can't let it go to the east or to the north. We draw the line here. What I'm asking may come at a high price, but it's a price I'm willing to pay to keep the others safe. I know you all said you were willing to do the same, but if you're having second thoughts, now is your last chance. The others need protecting. You can go after them."

"Don't know why you bother asking," Sam said, and there was a murmur of laughter through the dragons. "You can't scare us away if you tried, Steve."

Steve spread his wings as the ground shook again. "Alright," he said, his tail wrapping around himself. "Be on guard. Tony, you're with me."

Tony was surprised to hear Steve say that. Wouldn't Steve prefer to work with one of the other dragons? The ground shook violently before he had the chance to ask, however. He flew into the air as the ground started to crumble and a massive twelve-headed creature came up from the ground.

"I didn't make that many!" Tony said, flying to avoid a snapping head.

The hydra clawed out of the ground, pulling itself up. Jacques and Gabe tried to attack its claws to push it back down, but they only barely escaped the onslaught of five heads that tried to bite them.

"Focus on the heads. Don't let it grow more!"

The pairs spread out, Steve and Tony ending up in the middle with three heads to pick off. Tony rolled out of the way of a set of sharp teeth, sending a repulsor blast into its eye. It screamed in pain and knocked into one of the other heads. Steve folded his wings and dropped down, reopening them at the last second as he cut off the second head with his claws.

Tony turned on the flame thrower, not thinking about how Steve often used the same claws to pet his hair. The severed neck sizzled as Tony kept up the flame, Steve clawing at the remaining eye on the other head to keep it from attacking Tony.

"Drop!" Steve said.

Tony didn't hesitate, dropping down as something flew over his suit. It took him a moment to get his breath back from the jolt. "What was that?"

He was answered when the third head spat at him again, a purple, venomous-looking substance that seemed to be the hydra equivalent to dragon fire. "Poison," Steve replied, swooping out of the way of the teeth.

Tony did seem to remember something about that from the story of the Lernaean Hydra. That didn't mean he liked the reminder. He fired at the head he'd blinded, three sharp blasts from the repulsors that cut through the neck while Steve kept it distracted. Then he tackled the head that was trying to spit poison at Steve as the dragon breathed fire on the neck.

They fell into an intuitive pattern after that. Twice they missed the time frame to cauterize the neck, but they were down four heads. Tony would never have thought fighting with a dragon could be this easy. They'd never practiced, but Tony felt like he could read Steve's moves better than he could Rhodey's. He knew when Steve was hurt, but it didn't affect him like it had earlier. Now it helped him cover the dragon while Steve healed. He wondered if this was the bond or if it was something else entirely.

He just finished cauterizing their fifth head when he was knocked out of the sky. He cried out as he hit the ground hard and for a moment Tony wondered if he'd broken his back, the pain was so bad. It was a relief to realize he could still move. He was no where near fast enough to move away, unfortunately.

"Tony!" Steve yelled.

He felt it when Steve was bitten by the poisonous teeth as the hydra's claws pierced through the armor. He felt the pain in his gut and grit his teeth as the claw twisted then pulled out, a scream still managing to rip through his throat.

Tony forced his eyes open. He knew instinctively that Steve wasn't going to make it to him in time. Three heads were attacking Steve now and there was no way he could get to Tony before the claw came back down again, this time to crush him for good. He tried to use the thrusters to push away, but they sputtered and died.

"Steve," he coughed. The claw was coming down again. "I-"

Tony screamed again as he was jerked to the side, gasping in pain as claws wrapped around the armor and pulled him up. Not the hydra's claws. Sam.

"Hang on," Sam said, ducking under the hydra head. Tony nearly blacked out when Sam rolled to avoid the poison, but he clung on to consciousness desperately as Sam flew like a bat out of hell to get them out of reach.

Sam's flying evened out as his wings picked up on the lift. He rearranged Tony so that the carry was slightly more comfortable, causing Tony a jolt of pain that he had to grit back a cry for. "What are your wounds?" Sam asked.

"I..." Tony said, wincing as he coughed again. There was liquid in his throat. He was sure that wasn't a good sign.

"Tony, don't sleep," Sam ordered. "I can't tell what's wrong with you unless you tell me. I can't sense you in that suit."

"He's got a wound in his stomach, possibly blood in his lungs. I think the claw hit high enough to puncture one of them," Steve said, his mental voice close. Tony had meant to say something to Steve before he died. His thoughts were swimming too badly to remember what it was.

Sam swore, then issued another command. "Don't go to sleep on me, Tony."

Tony didn't remember much of the landing, but he was pulled out of the daze when Sam started tearing the suit to shreds. "Don't-"

"If we leave you in there you will _die_ ," Sam said reasonably.

Tony still muttered until the armor shifted him and then he was gasping for breath.

He did pass out when the golden light started and the pain became too much for him to take. ' _Steve... I lo..._ '

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Mem: I just really felt the need for some BAMF Sam pulling ridiculously dangerous last second saves and generally being awesome. And tentacles, because in what universe has Tony not run into tentacles? None, that's what universe. It's a universal constant, even for non-powered universes. XD Plus, an added bonus of Steve falling out of trees. I had fun with this part, what can I say. I really couldn't resist adding in a small reference to AoU when I got back from watching it though. It was like... the scene of him opening the secret passage was already in the fic. How could I resist? XD


	6. Chapter Six

He woke up coughing wetly, gentle claws tilting his head so that the liquid in his lungs came out on the ground. He heaved once, then spit the rest of the blood out.

"Drink, then spit it out," Sam said, holding a bowl of water to Tony's lips.

Tony didn't have to be told twice. Steve was the one holding his head, his tail curling possessively around Tony's feet. After actually drinking some of the water, Tony tried to sit up. His vision started to tunnel grey when he did and he leaned back against Steve. "The hydra-"

"Take it easy, man. You nearly died out there," Sam said, then looked to Steve. "Same goes to you, though your wounds weren't as bad. That's twice we've had to do some intensive healing on you and even you can't bounce back from that. The others got this."

"You were hurt?" Tony asked, looking up at Steve sharply. Or he tried to, but the motion made his head swim.

"I'm fine now," Steve said.

"He let the poison go a little too long trying to avenge you, but he'll be fine with a bit of rest," Sam said, ignoring Steve's disapproval.

Steve wasn't happy with being sidelined, but Tony could feel how tired he was. Tony himself felt exhausted, dragon healing taking a toll on his body.

"You're the one still hurt," Steve told Sam.

Tony opened his eyes when the dizziness passed, catching sight of the burn marks on Sam's back. He didn't think they'd been there before he'd tried to save Tony. Guilt flared up, but Tony swallowed it back down. They were all still fighting. He didn't have time for it.

"I'll survive," Sam said dryly. "Nothing that won't heal when I don't have to conserve my energy for healing others."

"Status?" Steve asked, lowering his head wearily into Tony's lap. Tony automatically started to pet him, Steve's eyes closing in pleasure though Tony could tell the dragon was still listening to Sam.

"Jacques and Jim are out for the count, but they'll be okay with a bit of rest. Dum Dum and Gabe are working together now. Not as smoothly, but they're giving the hydra hell all the same. Peggy says Sharon is fighting beautifully and we've trained her well. There are four heads left. I think we've got this on the ropes," Sam said, nostrils flaring.

The relief that rushed through Steve was almost painful. A wave of Tony's own relief flooded through him. The city was safe. He hadn't ruined everything. He was safe too, and so were the others. And with Steve curled around him, he could relax. He was just about to let himself pass out from the exhaustion when the ground shook violently, jerking him awake and shooting adrenaline through his system.

"What was that?" Tony asked, trying to stand. Between Steve curled around him and his own dizziness, 'trying' turned to 'failing' pretty quick.

"Trouble." Tony looked up to see Wanda staring in the distance at the remnants of the fight.

"I should get back there and see what's going on," Sam said.

Steve raised his head from Tony's lap. "I should-"

" _Stay_ ," Sam and Wanda said at the same time as Tony pulled him back down stubbornly.

Steve was _not_ thrilled at this command, but he stayed put as he grumbled to Sam. "Go. Keep me updated."

"Roger that," Sam said, taking off with a leap that spoke of his own weary muscles and pain rather than his normal grace.

The ground shook again just as the last head was severed by Peggy. "What's going on?" Tony asked, looking to Wanda for answers.

"You destroyed the skull used to control the beast," Wanda said. "It disrupted the balance."

Tony felt a chill overcome him and he shivered. "Yeah," he admitted. "But that was good, right?"

"It will keep your enemies from controlling them," she replied.

Steve's head shot up again, fear in his eyes. " _Them_?"

The ground shook again and a vicious roar made Tony clap his hands to his ears. Tony could make out another monster clawing its way through the hole in the ground. This one had twenty heads. Tony couldn't believe it. All of that was for nothing?

"No!" Steve said, uncurling from around Tony. "I have to-"

"You can't," Wanda said. "There is something else you must do."

"What's more important than fighting with the others?" Steve demanded, anger in his wings as he spread them intimidatingly. "No one is dying here. We can fight this!"

"This is not a fight that can be won, Steve," Wanda said, her voice gentle. "You know there are things more important than our lives here. It's more than just us in danger."

"We can't lose," Steve said stubbornly, though his tail trembled. "We have to hold the line and we will. You won't change my mind, Wanda."

Wanda didn't speak, but she looked at Tony who was struggling to stand with his hand on Steve's flank. Steve immediately curled his tail at Tony's feet, looking helplessly at him, then back to the fight.

"What?" Tony asked. "What is it? Why are you looking at me like that? I can... I can find a way to fight. If you get me one of those dragon crystals, I can-"

"You must survive." There was an air of gravity to the words that weighed Tony down. "The upper world needs you to live, or millions more will die. This place was never meant to survive, but you must."

"Like hell," Tony said, pushing away from Steve to get to his armor. The repulsors should still work. He could still fight. He had to.

"Wanda, you can't mean..." Steve said uncertainly.

"The city will fall," she said. "There is nothing to be done, but there is still hope."

"The line-"

"The hydra will not leave these grounds. I will make sure of it," Wanda promised darkly. "I searched the mural for how they were put to sleep the first time. There is old magic there. It will work a second time, and it will be safe again."

"And what's the price?" Steve asked, growling softly. "You had to have known it existed before you went looking for it. If you could look for the spell before, why didn't you use it earlier?"

"The record did not say what happened after. It stopped when the spell was cast. It is likely none of the dragons survived," Wanda replied. "But the hydra will sleep, that much is certain. And the ones who left the city will be safe."

"We'll find another way. You can't use that spell," Steve said.

Tony picked up his spare gun from the survival kit in the armor as they spoke and holstered it. Remarkably enough, the container had survived Sam's claws. It only had a few bullets left and he could barely see straight, but he felt better for having it. He also quickly cut the rope that tied the crystal to the armor, tying it to his wrist with a quick knot. He'd gone this far with it and it felt wrong to leave it now. One gauntlet still seemed in decent shape and he started to pull at the wires to disconnect it from the shoulder. Steve wasn't giving up and neither would he.

"We can still win this," Steve continued. "We can-"

"Steve," Wanda said, her voice final. Steve stopped what he was saying and looked away. "You said it yourself. The price must be paid. There must be a sacrifice. And you must take Tony back to the surface."

Tony fisted his hands. "Or you can get one of the god damned crystals and I will-"

"You would try," Wanda said, looking at him now. "But it would not save us. You are needed by your people. You can still do good there."

"I'm not..."

"There is still hope," Wanda repeated, leaning forward to rub her cheek against his. She repeated the motion with Steve who still hadn't looked up. "There is always hope. Never forget that, Tony Stark. This was never your fault. You have helped us save our people and yours by coming to this place."

"I'm not leaving," Tony said finally. Jarvis knew the suits and he had full trust in Rhodey and Pepper to take over for him. The world wouldn't like that very much, but Fury owed him enough to look out for them when political waters got hot. Stark Industries was privately owned and set up for any of them to take over in his absence. His friends would be taken care of. "Now get me one of those damned cry-"

Searing pain, quick and through the heart. Discipline and dedication. Light blue and dark brown. A warrior's spirit burning bright as a bon fire on a winter's night. Golden yellow rose, just blossoming vibrantly, and a deep, running river with water like ice. Love and pride. _Gone_.

Bright red and navy blue, passion and flame, dancing and music. The rose that blooms in adversity and the immutable constant of the sea. Loss. Fury. _Grief_. Tony fell back, dropping the gauntlet as Sharon's shriek echoed through all of the dragons. He could feel Steve reaching out to her, but all that came back was pure berserker rage and Peggy's name.

Tony felt his throat close up as he forced himself to blink and get past Sharon's grief to his own. He could feel Steve's tail tightening around his waist, but he couldn't have said when it got there. The phoenix crest on Sharon's chest shone in the moss light as her small form attacked the hydra with a viciousness that he had never seen before.

"Sam, Dum Dum," Steve said, his mental voice anguished as he paused to gather his thoughts among the sea of loss, almost choking on the names even though they weren't actually vocalized. "Keep an eye on Sharon. Make sure she doesn't create... Make sure she doesn't make more of the heads."

"What..." Tony said, his own voice breaking. "What happened?" he asked. But he knew. How could he not know with all the feelings he was getting from Wanda and Steve? But there was a desperate need to deny it, to hear them say it wasn't true.

"Peggy is dead," Wanda said, her eyes glowing red. It frightened Tony and he could feel that it scared Steve a little too, the sheer amount of power coming from Wanda that was barely controlled. "Go. We will take care of this. Keep him safe."

Steve's head was bowed low, but his wings flicked in agreement. Wanda rubbed his cheek, then flew off to join the fight.

"Let's go," Steve said dully, bending down so Tony could climb on.

"Steve, you can't give up like this! I can fix it," Tony promised, refusing to move. Peggy was... She was one of the first dragons he'd really talked to. She'd always been there when he had problems with Steve, and Christ, Sharon... Grief fueled into useless fury. He couldn't be helpless to avenge her. "I can do this. I can-"

Tony found himself being thrown across Steve's back, Steve's tail unwrapping from his waist after it placed him there. He was lying on his stomach between two of Steve's spikes and he stared at the blue scales under him in shock. "Don't you dare-"

"Hold on," Steve said.

Tony didn't have a chance to wiggle off before Steve vaulted into the air. Riding on his front was one of the worst ideas Steve had, because little scales dug into his stomach as he tried to find it again.

"You bastard," Tony said when he had the breath. He pounded and kicked Steve's flank, but it did very little. Words, however, he knew to be more effective. "You're just giving up! Peggy's dead, and all you're doing is running away!"

"No," Steve said, his voice tight with anger and hurt. "I'll come back after I've dropped you off."

Tony stopped moving, shocked to stillness. He could still feel Sharon's grief and the echo of Steve's. Steve was going to _leave._ "Turn back around," Tony said. He forced anger into his voice, but he suspected it came out more like begging. "Steve, I can't-"

 _Pain._ Metal-hurt-searing pain. Steve dropped from the sky even as Tony's ears registered the shot of a gun. He held on to Steve's spikes as they crashed into the ground, but his grip wasn't strong enough. He was thrown off onto the ground, groaning as he rolled to break the fall.

As soon as the momentum of his roll stopped, Tony pushed himself up and looked for the source of the gun shot. He ran to Steve despite how the pain in his hip screamed at him to not move, grabbing his gun. He had to protect Steve.

No one could be seen in the small meadow they crashed in. They must have over shot the bastard, momentum carrying them forward and leaving the shooter behind. Tony only hoped they were far enough away, because Steve needed help.

"Tony," Steve said.

Tony could see his tail trembling and pain in the line of his wings. He tried to stand and Tony put his gun away to rest a hand on Steve's shoulder. "Shh... Steve, stay down. You're okay."

The bullet was close. So close that Tony had to bite back his own fear. But it missed Steve's heart. It would take forever to heal, but there was a chance it would. He pulled off his shirt, tearing it apart as he pressed it into the wound. Red dripped down the blue of Steve's scales, and Tony bit his lip. The bullet was still in there poisoning Steve further, but he could deal with that later when Sam was here to help.

Steve let out a noise of distress and Tony longed to take Steve's head in his hands and scratch behind his horns to comfort him, but he didn't dare move his hands. "Shh, sweetheart. It's gonna be okay. I've got you."

"It burns," Steve said. "I should... You need to leave. Get to the gate. Tony-"

"I'm not leaving you, damn it!" Tony shouted. "Now don't be an idiot and help me put pressure on the wound."

He felt Steve settle, the majority of his fear receding. He put his free hand on Steve's neck. It left a half bloody hand print, but it calmed Steve who lay his head down on the ground and whined. "It hurts more when you do that," Steve said, clawing at the ground.

Dragons, Tony realized with a start, rarely dealt with open wounds for an extended period of time. The leaf bandages might be more for pain relief than stemming the blood flow. "If I don't, you'll bleed out. Those leaves you guys use as bandages, do you see any near by?"

"No, but there was some by the gate," Steve said, part of his fear returning.

Tony glared at him, letting the dragon know exactly how he felt about that sort of prodding. "No, I mean that," Steve said. "Not just saying it to make you go. Though you should."

Tony swallowed. They couldn't be that far. Not more than ten minutes' walk if he estimated right. That was twenty minutes Steve would be by himself. "I'll come back," Tony promised, hating himself for having to make it and the fear that Steve tried to bury when he said it. "But you need to keep pressure on the wound."

"You won't be going anywhere."

Tony's free hand went to his gun, but Viper stopped him. "Don't move, or I'll finish the dragon off," she said, and he heard the click of a gun.

He held his free hand up, but didn't let go of Steve's wound. He looked over to see that Viper looked worse for the wear. Her dress was torn and not quite the same emerald green anymore, and her hair was disheveled. The scar on her face was on full display, and Tony wondered once again how she'd actually gotten it. "What do you want, Viper?" he asked. "The hydra's beyond you and you've destroyed the city. What more do you want?"

"The nagas cannot take me to the surface. But you can," Viper said, her voice calm and controlled despite her looks.

"My way out is still blocked," Tony said with a dry chuckle. He didn't even have the suit left to help him pry his way out. "I don't know why the dragons keep pushing me that way when there's still no way out."

"You must survive," Steve said weakly. Tony narrowed his eyes at Steve, knowing he was holding something back.

"And the magic of this place will make sure of it," Viper said, a smile in her voice if not her face. "It has decided you are important, and if I am near you, I can catch the same sort of ride you did when Cobra saved me from falling."

Sometimes Tony really hated magic. "I'm not leaving him," Tony said simply, because if she was catching a ride, Steve damn well better be too. "And if you kill him, I. Won't. Leave. So you can either get the leaf we need to stop the bleeding or we can all die here."

"Tony-"

"Don't, Steve. Don't even try. I won't leave you."

Steve lay his head down, tail curling around Tony's feet. Tony kept putting pressure on the wound, staring at Viper as he waited for her to decide. He should be angry with her. He should be furious, because Peggy wouldn't be... He should be. Instead, he was just tired. He could feel his own weariness and Steve's on top of that, and the grief only made the ache worse.

But Steve was planning something. Tony didn't dare take his eyes off Viper to glance his way, but he was under the impression that Steve was just biding his time. Now, of course, was apparently Steve's time to try to hide things from Tony, which lead Tony to believe that he probably wouldn't like whatever the plan was. Sadly, Tony must be a good teacher, because it was working. He couldn't tell what it was, and he couldn't afford to give Steve away. He did press a little harder on the wound in warning, but Steve ignored him.

"You drive a hard bargain," Viper said, though she didn't lower the gun.

"If you want to get out of here alive, we do it on my terms," Tony said. Then softer, to Steve. "You're thinking awfully loudly..."

He felt a mental shrug from the bastard who was looking more and more pathetic. Tony started to really worry before he realized Steve was playing it up. "I hope you know what you're doing," Tony muttered before turning back to Viper. "Well?"

Viper nodded, but she kept the gun trained on Steve. "Cobra," she said, and Tony was surprised to see the naga appear at her side.

"Yes, Madame Hydra?"

"You know of the plants Mr. Stark speaks of?"

"I do," Cobra said, glaring at Tony. 

"Then find one," Viper snapped. "And go quickly. We have little time."

Cobra bowed to her and disappeared the same way he came. Tony turned back to Steve, ignoring her to see how much blood Steve had lost. Too much. Red was staining through his shirt and the blue scales underneath.

"He is dying. He would not survive on the surface anyway. If the cold and metal didn't kill him, humans would. You would do well to put your pet down," Viper said conversationally.

The fury that had been missing earlier nearly blinded Tony. If he hadn't been pressing down on Steve's wound, he would have risked rushing her, gun and all. "We. Are. Not. Leaving. Him," Tony said, gritting out the words as Steve whined softly. And damn, he knew Steve was playing it up, but the sound twisted at his heart in ways the heart pump couldn't fix. "Hydra's days are numbered and if I do make it out of here, I won't stop until I bury every last head. You sure you still want that ride?"

"Always so naive, Mr. Stark," Viper said, a smirk in her voice. "You failed in every way to protect the dragons. What makes you think you can stop Hydra when you couldn't stop the beast?"

Tony closed his eyes, leaning his forehead against Steve's flank as the dragon's tail tightened around his ankles. The worst of it was that what she said was true. He had failed. This was all his fault.

He could feel Steve's wings twitching in agitation and the anger that ran underneath. He knew it wasn't aimed at him, but Tony couldn't help but think it should have been.

"Your pet is angry," Viper said.

"He's not a pet!" Tony's head whipped up to glare at her, anger taking over the guilt. "You're not-"

The ground shook violently, like it had with the hydra coming to the surface. Was there a third? Tony didn't have time to think as he was knocked into Steve and he heard Viper scream. "As you humans say, go to Hell!" Steve said, the flame dying from his throat. The smell of burning flesh was nauseating, and Tony was a little glad he couldn't regain his footing to look.

"Steve-"

Claws gently gripped his shoulders before he could act. His stomach dropped away as Steve launched himself into the air as rocks started to fall from the ceiling in earnest. Fear gripped him as pain seared through Steve's shoulder. Steve was making it worse. "Stop! Steve, you can't-"

"You have to survive," Steve said, ducking a large boulder and sending Tony's equilibrium spinning. A smaller rock clipped his wing, but after righting himself, Steve kept going.

"I'm not that important!" Tony yelled, swallowing against the bile as Steve sped up. His eyes stung and he didn't think it was just the wind.

"You are to me," Steve said. "Hold on."

Any reply Tony might have had was stolen from him as the air was ripped from his lungs. He gasped for breath as Steve dove, blacking out without the suit to protect him at such fast speeds.

* * *

Tony groaned, headache pounding as he debated the merits of waking up or just fading back into oblivion. He ached all over and when he coughed because of the dust, more pain shot through him.

There was a heavy weight on his chest that would normally terrify him. He hated any weight on the heart pump, but he felt safe right now despite it. Protected. It was a curious feeling, and if Tony was going to be painfully honest, curiosity was usually his undoing.

He rubbed his eyes, the light getting brighter as he did and he winced. Right. The crystal was around his wrist. Moving his hand away, he forced his eyes open.

Steve's head was on his chest, the dragon's eyes closed. "Steve?" he croaked, hand moving to pet the dragon's head. He looked around as he did, trying to figure out where they were.

It was a cave. Not just any cave, but the gate cave. Tony realized with shock that he was only a few inches away from the ledge where he first met Viper. The way to the gate and his tunnel were blocked by fallen rocks that Steve was half buried under. What caught his breath was the mural that was right above the ledge's edge. How he had never noticed it before was a mystery, but now it made him cold.

It was the cave just as they were now, but there were tears running down the mural Tony's face. He had Steve's head cradled in his lap as he leaned over, open anguish written on every inch of his body. And Steve... Steve's eyes were closed. He wasn't sleeping. He was...

"Steve!" he said, poking the dragon's cheek and swallowing around the giant block in his throat. "Steve, sweetheart, I need you to wake up. I need you to open those baby blues for me. Steve, please!"

Slowly, he felt Steve waken, the hurts of every inch of his massive body screaming in agony. Tony bit his lip against the feeling, knowing it wasn't him. He wished for anything that it _was_ him, that he could take the pain from Steve. Steve should never have to hurt that much. He didn't deserve it.

"Steve, please. Sweet pea, I need you to wake up," Tony repeated, his voice cracking. He raised Steve's head to his and rested his forehead against Steve's. "Come on, big guy. Red, white and... you're a regular patriot, did I ever tell you? I can't use your dragon name, so you have to respond to... Steve."

Red, gold, and gunmetal grey. Fire of the forge and passion. Science and the wonder of the unexplored. A lone star burning all alone in the moonless night that connected them both. "Tony..."

Tony pulled away only enough to see Steve's eyes open, then he flung his arms around Steve's neck and held him tightly. "Don't scare me like that," Tony said, barely able to form the words.

"Sorry," Steve replied through the haze of pain.

That made Tony pull away again. "You need to try to heal yourself," he said. He could move some of the rocks and get them off Steve. That should help. He started to stand, but Steve made a low whine that stopped him. "Steve?"

"The others are dead," he said simply, his voice empty and dull. He didn't meet Tony's eyes.

For a moment, Tony swore the heart pump stopped working. There was a stinging pain prickling at his eyes, but he ignored it. Sam, Sharon, Wanda, and the others. They couldn't... There was a numbness to their names that Tony couldn't handle right now. He pushed those thoughts away viciously. He could grieve when Steve wasn't bleeding out because of a bullet.

"No, don't," Steve said as Tony tried to move again.

"I'm going to get these rocks off of you," Tony said. "You start healing."

"Tony-"

"You are _not_ joining them."

"Tony, please." It was his name. It wasn't just the spoken sounds, but his dragon name underneath, calling to every part of the soul that Tony didn't believe in. He was fixed in place as Steve weakly leaned up so that his cheek rested against Tony's as if it were too much to move more than that. Tony's hands automatically came up to support Steve's head, and he felt Steve sigh and relax. Steve's mind brushed against his, open love and affection. Absolution that Tony didn't deserve.

"Steve..."

Steve pushed himself up on his foreclaws, loose rocks scattering as he moved.

"What are you-" Tony asked, looking at him frantically as he tried to keep Steve down. "Don't move, sweetheart. You have to start healing."

"We both know that won't work," Steve said.

"No," Tony said, finding strength in the anger that coursed through his veins. "No. Wanda said there was still hope. That means... I don't know. I'm still doing something wrong, but I'll fix it. I'm not letting that mural tell me my destiny!"

"You're doing nothing wrong," Steve said, his voice gentle. "The city is destroyed, but its people are safe. There _is_ hope, Tony."

"Not without you," Tony said, feeling small and helpless in the small circle of light the crystal gave off. He balled his fists and fought back the urge to scream.

"Yes, without me," Steve said. "You... you gave me that again, Tony. You'll find it again too."

"I'll change things. I-" Tony gasped, looking down at Steve's claw that hovered over his chest, the glowing yellow light the cause of his sudden pain. "What're you doing?"

"The power needed to heal my wounds would kill me, and the metal poisoning is what will kill me faster any way," Steve said. "But I can heal your heart before I go."

"It's metal," Tony said, falling to his knees as the pain became too much. "You can't-"

"It won't heal completely." Steve's voice sounded weaker, but he still continued. "But it'll work longer. Combined with the orichalcum it should work just like a normal heart."

"I don't want it," Tony said, trying to tear Steve's claw away. "Steve, don't! I'd rather you stay longer."

"Please," Steve begged. "Let me give this to you. The upper world needs you."

The glow stopped as Steve waited. It was everything Tony had ever wanted. He'd still have the heart pump, but his heart would work properly. No more worries about it giving out or the pump malfunctioning. He had searched for years to find a cure and even the orichalcum would work for maybe ten years, but probably only five the way he pushed it. He didn't have to charge it anymore, but that didn't mean it wouldn't one day stop. What Steve offered was almost a normal life.

The sacrifice was too high. "I can't..."

"Please," Steve asked.

Tony bowed his head and nodded, hating himself for not being able to say no. He didn't deserve this. He didn't deserve Steve. Steve would-

The pain started up again as the glowing light nearly blinded him. "Steve..."

"I know," Steve said, sending Tony the affection he craved. It was growing weaker, but still there.

Fear settled between them and Tony couldn't tell if it was him or Steve. He fought for breath against the pain, words lost to the empty rasps echoing through the cavern.

Finally the pain stopped and Tony gulped down deep breaths. "Steve?" he asked as soon as he could manage.

"I'm sorry." Steve's voice was weak and distant, as though they had all those layers of stone and metal still between them. "That's the best I can do."

"It's good enough," Tony reassured him. "Just stay. I still have to show you the stars, remember? Real stars. Not just the ones in my memories. We can even go dancing when they're out one night. You can't miss it."

"It's a date," Steve said, his nostrils flaring. He lowered his head onto Tony's lap, closing his eyes. "Can we listen to human music?"

"Sure thing," Tony promised, stumbling over the words. "It don't mean a thing if it ain't got that swing after all. Or so I'm reliably told."

"Those sound fast," Steve said, a hint of a frown in his voice. "I want a song that's nice and slow for our first dance under the stars. I wanna see them properly."

"Anything you want, Steve. Just be there." Tony pet his head, scratching behind the horns just the way Steve liked. "If I'm going to be around longer, you have to be too."

"If I must." Steve leaned into the touch once more before resting again. "The stars better be all you've made them out to be, Mister. I've been waiting... so long to..."

"...Steve?" No reply. No feeling. Nothing for Tony to grasp at as Steve slipped through his fingers. "Steve, come back."

He brought up Steve's head, rubbing the dragon's cheek and then kissing his forehead. "Steve, please," he begged, his vision blurring as he curled around Steve. "Steve..."

He failed again. He always failed. He hadn't even told Steve how much he loved him, even when the dragon shared those emotions readily himself.

Maybe this time he could get it right and follow Steve. He couldn't fail this time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Mem: I'm not sorry.


	7. Epilogue

It was cold when he woke up. Steve was always cold without him. Would he be cold without Steve? He curled tighter around himself as the rocks started to fall. The noise was what woke him up, but he ignored it. It didn't matter.

It was dark now, the crystal on his wrist long since gone dead. He knew vaguely that he should be hungry and that thirst would kill him before that. He felt numb though, only the cold seeping through his bones reminding him he couldn't follow Steve yet. He couldn't even feel Steve beneath him anymore, his fingers thick and ungainly as he groped blindly for Steve's horns. He couldn't find them.

He was starting to panic when the rocks moved again. Was this it? He didn't deserve quick after all he'd done, but he wouldn't be opposed to the end of the unfeeling cold.

Tony wasn't expecting the light. He squeezed his eyes against it and the pain it brought. "Tony?" a mechanized voice asked, elated. "Rhodey, he's down here!"

"Careful, Miss," the second voice said. "We don't want to bring the rocks down on top of the boss."

"The damn bastard had us so worried that he better not die now or I will chase his sorry ass down to hell just to give him a piece of my mind!"

"Pep?" he heard himself ask. Sharon was always so fascinated with human cursing. She would love... She would have loved Pepper. He didn't open his eyes, wishing he hadn't said anything at all.

"Tony! Rhodey, he's alive, but he doesn't look good."

"Hang on, Miss Potts. Remember what Jarvis said, nice and easy."

The light became less painful, but Tony still kept his eyes closed, blocking out Rhodey and Pepper's words no matter how insistent they became. It wasn't until he felt the warm metal of the armor that he opened his eyes, looking up to see the armor Rhodey started calling War Machine at the start of the War.

"Hey, boss," he said, worry coming through the mechanized voice. "You sure gave us a scare with that stunt."

"Rescue and War Machine are here to save your ass," Pepper said, her voice coming through without the synthesizer. He opened his eyes to see she had taken off her helmet. She looked haggard, with bags under her eyes and her usually neat bob in complete disarray. She was standing in a suit of armor that he could have sworn had even more guns than his and Rhodey's combined. "Rescue?" he asked, thinking he'd never seen her look more beautiful than in that moment. He wished Steve could see...

"Figured it fit, considering I'm here to save you boys when you get in too deep," Pepper said.

"You okay, sir?" Rhodey asked, still hidden behind the helmet.

No. No, he wasn't okay. Tony closed his eyes again, hands fisting under him. Now he couldn't follow Steve and the others. He'd failed again. Sam, Peggy, Sharon, and all the others... He'd failed them all.

"We're getting you out of here," Rhodey said, gathering Tony up in his arms rather than seeing if Tony could stand. Tony would normally be offended by a bridal carry, but he was being moved away from-

"Steve!" Tony tried to struggle against the warm armor to go back to the cold. The cold wasn't so bad as long as he was still with Steve. "We can't - I have to stay with Steve."

"Tony..." Pepper said, her eyes widening before settling into something akin to pity.

"We can't leave him here!" Tony said, twisting around so he could see, but Rhodey held him fast.

"Tony, there's no one here but you," Rhodey said gently. He hardly ever used Tony's given name even when they were alone. The fact that he used it now gave Tony pause, enough that it took him a moment to parse the words after it.

"He's over there," Tony pleaded. "We can't... We have to bring him with us." He couldn't leave Steve alone in the cold cave. The least he could do was bury him properly somewhere warm.

"Oh, Tony," Pepper said, her gauntleted hand going to her mouth as her eyes looked suspiciously wet.

"There's only rocks over there," Rhodey said, this time helping Tony turn to see.

There _were_ only rocks. None of them looked even remotely dragon-like. The mural was gone as well. It was just an empty dead end of a cave. "He was here," Tony said. "He was _here_. Rhodey-"

"Tony, Steve died before you went down, remember?" Rhodey said, keeping a tight grip on Tony, who once again started to struggle.

That didn't make sense. Rhodey and Pepper didn't even know Steve. How could they be telling him Steve died before he'd gone down? He was stunned to silence as Pepper and Rhodey chatted in concern over his head.

Rhodey stood, carrying Tony out of the cave as Pepper took point.

"He was there," Tony said weakly.

"Shh... We'll be back at the air ship soon," Rhodey said as they stepped out of the cave. It was night, Tony realized with a start that felt like a dagger right through his heart pump. The sky was clear and the stars were-

Tony closed his eyes, unable to look at them as Rhodey fired the thrusters. It started to get colder, even with the motor warmed metal, but Tony didn't care. He didn't open them again until the wind cut off and he knew he was inside the airship.

It was warmer inside and he could probably walk, but Rhodey didn't let him down and Tony didn't ask. He had the feeling that he would be cold again even with the air ship's heating if he was put down, and he wasn't sure he could handle that on top of the night.

When Jarvis came into view, Tony almost felt like crying again. The three people he had missed the most over the past few weeks and now they were all here. Home. As much of a home as he could have without Steve.

"Well, look who's finally agreed to grace us with his presence," Jarvis said, though there was more worry than bite to his words. "Can't you walk?"

"He says he saw Captain Rogers down in the cave," Pepper said.

"Steve was there," Tony corrected, not meeting Jarvis's eyes as he puzzled over who 'Captain Rogers' was. "He was..."

"Alright," Jarvis said. He felt human hands gripping him and he wobbled and straightened out onto his legs. An arm wrapped around his waist as Jarvis took most of his weight. "You two get out of those tin cans. I'll take Tony for a while."

It wasn't a long journey to Tony's cabin. He sank into his bed as Jarvis laid him down, too soft after getting used to Steve's flank. Soft and cold. "Steve-"

He broke off when he felt a hand on his forehead, shivering slightly without any body heat to warm him up. He almost leaned into the casual touch because living with the dragons had made him realize how little most people touched him and he would miss it. "No fever," Jarvis said, sounding both puzzled and relieved. 

"He was there," Tony said again, wondering if he was becoming a broken record.

Jarvis sighed and Tony looked away, not knowing what he'd done to deserve the disappointment this time, but having a guess. "You know I've never approved of those sorts of trysts, boy," Jarvis said, shaking his head slightly. "But this whole damned business is enough to set anyone off his rocker."

"We weren't like that," Tony said, still wondering as to how they all seemed to know Steve.

"No, but you wanted it to be," Jarvis said, rubbing his temples. "Look, Tony, your father would never have approved of-"

"And you don't either, I get it," Tony said, feeling like a child again as he rolled over to avoid the conversation. "How do you even know about-"

"Tony," Jarvis said, his voice bringing Tony up short. "I can't say I like the thought of you stepping out with another man, but you've always..."

Jarvis cleared his throat awkwardly. "I raised you like my own after Howard died, and I'm proud of you no matter who you tumble in the bushes. And if he was making you happy, I ain't got much to complain of."

Tony turned back over to face Jarvis, seeing the honesty in his eyes. Tony swallowed hard and blinked a few times. It wasn't complete acceptance, but it was a step up from the last time they'd had this conversation and that meant a lot. Maybe one day... "Jarvis, I..."

"Let me finish," Jarvis said, more to spare them both the emotional discussion than to cut him off. "No good's gonna come from these fantasies of yours if you keep kicking up a fuss. The man's dead. People will talk if you keep this up. And if it's hard for me to accept, others will tear you down. You've enough money to get away with it, but you know it won't be a picnic. He's dead, Tony. Let him go."

"But how do you guys even know about Steve?" Tony asked.

Jarvis snorted, the awkwardness leaving now that he'd said his piece. "You've never been subtle, Tony."

That just confused Tony more. "But you never met Steve. I met him down there."

Jarvis raised an eyebrow at him. "You were only out of contact with us for twelve hours at most," Jarvis said. "Though I sure as hell would like to know what you did to that armor you were wearing. And your shirt."

"What?" Tony asked. That wasn't right. It had been _weeks_ since he'd been trapped, not hours. "That's impossible. I was - Never mind. The dragons are-"

"Dragons?" Jarvis asked. "What are you going on about?"

"Steve," Tony said, quickly losing patience. "Do you know him or not? He is..." Tony stopped, then forced the words out around the lump in his throat. "He was a dragon. I was down there with him for weeks and he'd never been to the upper world. He had a terrible poker face, so I'd know if... Why are you staring at me like that? Do I have something on my face?"

"Tony," Jarvis said, surprisingly gentle for one that was usually so rough. He'd only heard that tone once before, when Jarvis had told him his father was dead. "You were down there for twelve hours. There's no such thing as dragons. They're myths."

"But they were there!" Tony insisted, panicking. His hands tightened around the sheets. "They had - not magic. Some kind of energy transference that could heal and Hydra was there too, trying to wake up a real hydra. Viper - Madame Hydra - she's-"

"Part of the Serpent Society. We were here to take her down, remember?" Jarvis said. "God knows if we did or not, or if she slithered away. We took out the base, but there were none of your monsters."

"The dragons aren't monsters!"

"We're talking about dragons now?" Rhodey said as he came into the room, Pepper on his heels.

"Was there any gas in that cave?" Jarvis asked before Tony could answer.

"Don't think so," Rhodey said, looking to Pepper. "You took your helmet off. Smell anything funny?"

He got a glare for his troubles. "Of course not. The armor would have told us."

"I'm not hallucinating, damn it," Tony said, a wave of dizziness passing through him. He felt Jarvis pushing him back down in bed as his vision greyed and tunneled.

"Viper shot Steve," Tony said when his head was clear. "He was there. Out of all the things to make up, I didn't imagine a giant blue dragon!"

"Alright, boss," Rhodey said. "We'll talk about it when you've rested. Sleep now. You need it."

"He was there," Tony insisted again, his eyes feeling heavy despite himself. The dragon healing had taken so much out of him on top of the grief that even just being in a bed was pulling him under. He fought it though, forcing his eyes open again.

"Drink this," Rhodey said, holding a cup to Tony's lips but waiting on his agreement. "It'll help you sleep."

"I don't-"

"We can figure it out once you've slept," Rhodey said reasonably. Tony hated it when he was being reasonable. God forbid he and Peggy ever-

Well, they wouldn't. Tony took the cup, his hand trembling a little, but he refused to let Rhodey help him. It was warm tea, no doubt one of Rhodey's concoctions. It had honey though, enough to mask the taste of whatever he put in there, and Tony settled back after he finished it, allowing his eyes to close.

* * *

He was alone. So alone. The dark was almost oppressive and he couldn't find Steve. "Don't leave," he said, frantically searching for the soft dragon scales. "Steve, don't-"

" _Tony_."

Tony sat up gasping, ignoring the dizziness that followed. He wasn't in a cave and Pepper had a small lamp on by the bed side with paper and a hastily dropped pen. "Pep," he said, struggling to get his bearings as the dream slowly released its grip on him.

"Mr. Stark," she said primly. "How was your sleep?"

"Swell, Miss Potts," Tony replied, taking deep breaths until his heart rate slowed. If she was going to ignore the nightmare, so would he. "Where are we?"

"Course set for New York, currently over India," she answered. "We should arrive-"

"Change course," Tony said, debating if it was worth getting out of bed. At this point it was probably a lack of nutrition that was causing his dizziness, not exhaustion. He could probably chance it. "We need to head to London to meet with Fury and the other-"

"We're going to New York," Pepper said cheerfully, reaching over her papers to pick up a tray. She then thrust it on Tony, preempting his attempt to get up. He looked down at the tray, taking stock of the juice and sandwiches. There was even some fresh fruit on there, which was how he knew they were spoiling him because they thought he was sick. There was a folder off to the side of the food, which caught his curiosity.

He looked over the food again and raised an eyebrow at Pepper.

"We didn't know when you'd be up and you whine too much when the food's gone cold," she said, crossing her arms over her ample chest. "And Fury said you're to take off at least two weeks to get your head on straight. That stunt you pulled was too risky and he doesn't want to lose the rest of his assets."

"What's in the folder?" he asked as he picked up a sandwich. He should be starving, especially after going so long without normal human meals, but he didn't really taste the food he forced himself to eat.

"That's your folder on Steve," Pepper said.

Tony swallowed, looking down at the folder in trepidation. He set the sandwich aside and picked up the folder, flipping it open.

"You need to eat more," Pepper said as he looked through the data collected.

Tony almost didn't hear her. There were pictures and newspaper clippings in there of a human in a military uniform. Handsome with the kind of chin that could proclaim democracy to communists just by existing. Definitely someone Tony wouldn't mind spending the night with, but no one Tony could remember seeing before. There were even a few drawings of some of his Marvels adventures thrown in, though he didn't know what they had to do with anything. They were signed S.R.

The exploits of 'Captain America' looked to be almost as popular as his time in Marvels. The newspapers ate him up, proclaimed him to be the all American hero that the war effort needed, which offended Tony slightly because the newspapers never fawned as much over him.

"How come I've never heard of this guy?" Tony said, leafing through the articles.

"You have," Pepper said with a frown. "That's the folder you made to keep tabs on him while we were fighting different battles. Rhodey and Jarvis didn't want to give it to you, but I thought... I hope it helps you get things straight."

Tony looked over the articles again. He could definitely see the signs of himself in creating the folder. It had all the things he'd collect if he were keeping tabs on someone, including things he's pretty sure Fury or this Steve Rogers wouldn't want him to have. This 'super-serum' _reeked_ of classified information.

"You're telling me you don't know any of this?" Pepper asked as Tony skimmed over the notes on the process.

That was his handwriting on some of the notes, but he'd never been consulted about a vita-ray machine. "Nope. I've never seen any of this before," he said, flipping to the next page.

A card fell out of the folder and he picked it up. Some sort of baseball card. When did he start collecting those? When he flipped it over, he felt like he'd just been gutted.

There was a picture on the front, but it wasn't of a baseball player. It was a man in a ridiculous costume with a cowl that obscured his face and had wings on the side of it. The whole outfit was red, white, and blue - a walking patriot of Old Glory. He had a shield with a silver star surrounded by the same colors. A single star.

"Tony!" There were hands gripping his shoulders, forcing him to sit back down on the bed. His hand tightened around the card.

"You're white as a sheet," Pepper said, touching his forehead to check his temperature before running a hand through his hair. "What's wrong?"

"Steve," Tony said, unable to take his eyes off the drawing. He pushed her hands away to look for an actual picture. He had to have at least one, probably in color because he was thorough and spent a week messing around with a Kodak a few years back.

He found the picture he was looking for and stared at the blue eyes behind the cowl. They were smaller and more human-looking, but those were Steve's eyes. He'd recognize that blue anywhere.

"Was he stubborn?" Tony asked, his voice sounding far away to his ears.

"Worse than you," Pepper replied. "Wicked sense of humor too, but only if you paid attention. For a man with looks like that, he certainly liked to be a wallflower. Grumpiest man I've ever met in the morning though. You liked to tease him about that, him being in the army and all."

Tony swallowed, tracing the lines of the star on the shield. "He was a dragon."

"Tony," Pepper said. "Dragons aren't real."

"They were."

Pepper's hands fisted. "When I get my hands on that Hydra bitch who did this to you, I will fucking string her-"

"She's probably dead," Tony interrupted, still staring at the photo.

"You think that measly little detail's gonna stop me?" Pepper asked.

That startled a laugh out of him and he was able to set the photo down, though not out of sight. With a trembling hand, he picked up the next article: "America's Fallen Son." Tony wanted to laugh. Whatever was actually going wrong with the universe, Steve was still dead. He couldn't win. He felt numb again, only feeling the prevailing ache that left a gaping hole where Steve should be.

"Why don't you get some more rest," Pepper said, moving the tray away. He hadn't eaten much, but she sensed he wasn't going to eat any more.

"What good would that do?" Tony asked, though he let her take the file and fix the blankets. He felt sick looking at the file now, and he wanted to keep down what little he'd eaten.

"It's good for the weary mind, or so my Grammy used to say," she replied.

He doubted sleep would help. But as he settled back down, she took his hand and held it tight. He wasn't alone, even if it felt like it. "Was there... Did I have a crystal with me?" he asked.

Pepper looked surprised. "I think there was. Rhodey was looking at it earlier. Is the quartz important?"

Quartz. A plain crystal. "I'll get it later," Tony said. He didn't sleep for a long while, not until the grief tired him out.

* * *

He was warm. He could feel the affection rolling off Steve, who flared his nostrils and wrapped his tail even tighter around Tony's waist. "Steve," Tony said, smiling sleepily up at the dragon. "What are you doing up?"

"I decided to wake up first today," Steve said, his usual grumpiness gone. Tony wondered if Peggy had brought him a snack, because usually only hunger was enough to rouse Steve from his dreams. "Couldn't leave you by yourself."

He rubbed his cheek against Tony's and Tony laughed, catching hold of his head and holding him close. "I'm glad you're back."

It was getting too bright to see and Tony raised a hand to shade his eyes. "Steve..."

The sun shone through the window of the airship and onto Tony's bed, but what warmth the sun's rays gave him slowly left as he turned over and closed his eyes against the prickling feeling. A dream. His breath hitched as he curled up around his pillow. That was worse than the nightmares.

A few days on the airship gave Tony a chance to recover from the sleep debt the dragon healing gave him, so he got up and put in a few hours in the workshop, fixing Rhodey and Pepper's armors. He knew how quiet he was being worried the others, but it was either that or screaming at them, and it wasn't their fault the universe was a bastard.

When he checked on his heart, it was working better than before, the tissue mostly healed around the metal. He didn't dare bring it up, however, not when the others might tell him that it had always been like that. Even the United Nations seemed better off than they had been when he went down, so why not his heart too? They wouldn't believe him if he said Steve had healed it.

It was now broken in other ways.

Later after Jarvis kicked him out of the workshop to get more of the rest that he feared, Tony lounged on deck, looking through the folder again, the crystal from the cavern ceiling warm in his pocket. He had the contents memorized by now, but that didn't make them familiar in the ways it should be. For someone he supposedly met several times and helped become a super soldier, Tony had absolutely no recollection of it happening.

The evidence that he had was plain as day and in abundance, but he felt nothing when he looked through the folder of his own hand written notes . The only feeling he got was when he looked at the pictures of Captain America, and that just made him ache for Steve. After staring at it too long, he'd take out the quartz and trace the lines of it. It was just a normal quartz now. Nothing to show that it ever glowed in the darkness. Part of him wanted to throw it over the side and be done with it, but he could never actually let it go when he tried to give into the urge.

He knew what the others thought. He'd stumbled over words like 'stress,' 'shell-shock,' and 'nervous breakdown' when they thought he wasn't in earshot. A small part of him was terrified that they were right, but he stubbornly ignored it and insisted on his story. He put the crystal back in his pocket and went back to the files.

Tony was so focused on the files that he didn't notice Rhodey was sitting next to him until he spoke. He didn't jump, but it was a near thing. "You're not going to set it on fire by staring at it like that."

"Wasn't planning on it," Tony snapped, hunching over slightly.

"No. Then you couldn't read it for the hundredth time," Rhodey replied.

Tony ignored him, moving on to the article about Captain America's shield and it's aerodynamics.

Rhodey touched his shoulder and this time Tony did jump. He'd gotten so used to the dragons being in his personal space, but apart from his first day back,no one really touched him. "Your fuse is running short," Rhodey said.

"I'm fine."

"No, you're not."

No, he wasn't. But when he didn't have someone in his head looking through his thoughts, he didn't have to admit it. "What do you want?" he asked curtly, eyes scanning over the document.

"We want to help," Rhodey said. "We'd appreciate it if you threw us a bone."

"There's nothing to say," Tony said, snapping the folder shut as he stood and walked to the rail. He still had about an hour's worth of daylight left before he would lock himself below deck and refuse to come out no matter how much Rhodey and Pepper tried to tempt him. He couldn't bear to face the stars right now.

He heard Rhodey's sigh despite the wind. He stood next to Tony on the rail, looking out at the ocean below as they bumped shoulders. Tony could lose himself while he tried to figure out why the color bothered him. He wished Rhodey would just leave him alone. "There's plenty to say. You just won't say it. We're worried about you."

"Why? You want me to tell you everything just so you can tell me how crazy I am?" Bitterness wrapped around him like ice.

"Tony-"

"You think it," Tony said, cutting off any protest. "I hear it enough when you and Jarvis or Pepper are whispering about me."

"Okay," Rhodey said easily. "Why don't you tell me what happened down there?"

"I'm not-"

"I'll believe you," Rhodey said.

"What?"

"Come back down and sit. Tell me about what happened," Rhodey continued. "I'll listen."

"You _won't_ believe me," Tony said, looking away. "It's insane. Even I know that."

"But you still believe it happened." Rhodey put both hands on Tony's shoulders this time, turning him away from the view. "And right now you look like you could use someone who believes you."

"I..." Tony looked back at the ocean. It wasn't the right shade of blue.

He closed his eyes, leaning forward until his forehead touched Rhodey's shoulder. Rhodey was surprised at first, then he brought his arms around Tony for a proper hug. It wasn't the same as having a dragon curled around him, but it was nice. Warm. "Come on," Rhodey said, keeping an arm around him as he herded Tony below deck. "Let's go down to your cabin and you can tell me."

* * *

"Well?" Tony asked after he'd finished. He tapped his fingers against the desk, then stilled when he realized it betrayed his anxiousness. 

Rhodey leaned back, his arms crossed over his chest thoughtfully. "Honestly, I don't believe half the things that come out of your mouth sometimes. I've heard you tell stories where I'd been there, remember?"

Tony looked down, balling his fists. "So you think-"

"I think that you believe it," Rhodey interrupted. "And those were a hell of a lot of details for a hallucination. You're inventive, but not that much."

Tony frowned. "So what are you saying?"

"I'm saying your story's crazy, but I don't think you are."

Tony breathed out, closing his eyes against the relief that washed through him. The dragons were real. Completely impossible, but Rhodey believed him. 

"You honestly fell for a girl named _Viper_ though?" Rhodey asked.

"She seemed harmless!" 

"Viper, Tony. Her name was _Viper_."

"That would be the part you pick at," Tony muttered as Rhodey laughed. 

"No more snakes for you," Rhodey said, smile turning softer. "You need someone to vet your relationships, man."

"I thought that was your job. No more super villains or villainesses allowed," Tony said. "You've fallen down on your duty to keep me from them."

"For the record..."

Tony looked up, curious. "What? Come on, spill it."

"I thought Cap would be good for you," Rhodey said.

"Cap?"

"Steve. Your dragon as a human," Rhodey clarified. 

"He wasn't my dragon," Tony said as he looked away. He never owned Steve. Though he wouldn't have minded if they belonged to each other. Tony shook his head, blinking rapidly. There was no point in thinking about belonging now. "Next time you should tell me before it's too late."

Rhodey didn't mention how his voice cracked. "You miss him."

"I still can't get over the fact you all knew him," Tony said. He'd dreamed of the others meeting the dragons, but this was almost cruel. Everyone had those memories except for him.

"Sounds like you knew him better in your memories," Rhodey said.

Tony honestly didn't know if that made it better or worse. He closed his eyes and leaned into Rhodey's hand on his shoulder, all too aware that it wasn't Steve's tail around his feet or waist. He breathed deeply, ignoring the hitch as he tried not to think of how he missed a certain shade of blue. 

Rhodey pulled him into a one-armed hug and Tony rested his head on his shoulder. "I've been with you a long time, Tony," Rhodey said. "Even when I tried to quit you, I couldn't stay away too long. We've been through a lot, you and me."

"And I repaid you by being a terrible friend," Tony said.

"Maybe. You are a bit of a mess," Rhodey said, but not unkindly. "But we had some good times too. You'll get through this and we'll have good times again. I promise."

"Why do you come back?" Tony asked. "I keep getting people hurt, Rhodey. That's why you left the first time. Why come back?"

Rhodey was quiet for a moment, but when he did speak, it was with an open fondness Tony wasn't expecting. "I guess sometimes I enjoy a good mess. And you are, Tony. You're good. You make a lot of stupid mistakes some times by keeping things to yourself, but you're a good man and you're my friend."

"It was my fault," Tony said. He couldn't handle getting everyone around him killed. He almost _wanted_ to push Rhodey and the others away for their own safety, but he had the feeling they weren't going to let him that easily. "I... I miss him."

"I know," Rhodey said. "I know."

* * *

The trip back was longer than Tony would have liked. The workshop on the airship was enough to make repairs on the armors, but it wasn't equipped for making an entirely new one and Tony's fingers were itching for work. Work meant focus. Work meant not thinking about Steve and the other dragons he'd killed. The others worried, but he gave them tight smiles and stayed in his cabin when he woke up with dreams of Steve being alive.

It was funny. He had all of his friends together, but he still felt so alone. 

"Mr. Stark, you shouldn't just head straight down to the workshop," Pepper said, her hands on her hips as he started to unload the equipment from the ship. He needed to get a proper look at the Rescue armor, because something about the aerodynamics was off.

"Ms.Potts," he said pleasantly, carrying a large box of parts out of the hanger. "I'm on forced vacation from the military, but that doesn't mean there's not more work to do back home."

"Tony-"

"Just give me some time down there," he pleaded. Pepper Potts was a formidable woman when she was worried, and he wasn't up to fighting her right now. "You can bully me to bed later."

Pepper sighed, then leaned up to kiss his cheek. "If you say so, Mr. Stark. I expect a full report on Madame Hydra for my article tomorrow though."

"I thought giving you a suit meant you could do your own reporting," he replied.

"Tomorrow, Mr. Stark," she said.

Rhodey left with a knowing glance and a comforting hand on his shoulder after they cleared everything out. It was Jarvis who stopped him before he could retreat. He was frowning, like a puzzle that couldn't be solved had appeared in the armor. "The house staff are divided between a thief and a ghost," he said.

Tony raised an eyebrow. "What's been going on?"

"Food's been going missing," Jarvis replied. "Not all of it at once, but a lot. Enough to have a small feast every day. The cook's been going crazy because he locks the pantry up tight every night."

"Then we have a particularly clever thief who is probably profiteering because of rationing on the black market. Or just someone down on their luck," Tony said with a shrug. "Tell the cook not to worry and let the police know about our ghost, and if it's one of the staff, find out why they did it and come to me before letting them go. War makes for some hard times."

"You're a soft touch, boy," Jarvis said, though his scowl was twitching into a smile. "You can't save everyone."

That was a lesson which had been brought home painfully. His return smile was brittle and bitter. "Of course I can't," he agreed.

Jarvis ruffled his hair. "And not everything's your own fault either, lad. You're no Atlas, even if you try to put the world on your shoulders every chance you get."

Tony looked away. He heard Jarvis's sigh as he retreated, then closed his eyes. Alone at last.

The workshop door opened a bit smoother than he'd been expecting since he'd been away for so long, but the workshop itself was a little dustier than he'd left it. Tony was glad of that. It meant his thief hadn't been looting down here and the house staff obeyed his orders to keep out. It'd take a bit of cleaning, but he could do that later. 

The big, white room was about as home as he could get. He couldn't count the number of times he had fallen asleep on the little red couch, and the familiar tools and half-finished projects greeted him like old friends. A few things had been moved around, but he put that down to Jarvis ordering a cleaning behind his back. 

The original armor he'd made off his father's designs was in the corner, a big, hulking thing compared to the one he wore while he was with the dragons. The helmet stared at him accusingly as he walked to it, the cold metal glinting in the light.

Tony hadn't been good enough. The suit hadn't been good enough. He balled his fists and stood there as the helmet judged him, then he took the helmet off the rig. He turned it in his hands, the blank eyes not giving him any relief. 

His hands tightened around it briefly, then he turned and screamed as he threw it against the wall. The sound of metal hitting the brick wall rang through the workshop as he sat down in the chair and covered his face with his hands. He let out a long, shuddering breath. 

"Tony?"

Tony jumped, hand reaching for the gun he hadn't taken off yet. It was a habit to wear one anytime he was unloading, even when he was at home. He'd been taken by surprise one too many times with his cargo to go without.

He triangulated the sound of the voice and aimed automatically, but he didn't see anyone. His fingers tightened around the gun. "Who's there?"

A blond head peeked over the edge of the couch, which Tony realized was pushed out a bit. The man's eyes widened as he vaulted over the top. He started towards Tony, but halted when Tony raised the gun. "Tony, it's me, Steve."

Tony didn't lower the gun. The man was well dressed, but definitely second hand clothes if the worn look was anything to go by. It was the lack of uniform that threw Tony off. Now that he had a better look, it was definitely the man from the photographs. "You're supposed to be dead," Tony said, not letting his guard down. What if this was a delusion?

"It didn't take," Steve said. His voice sounded familiar, but it wasn't quite the mental voice Tony was used to. Was that a Brooklyn accent? Tony was almost a little horrified in spite of himself. The cheeky response was definitely familiar, but Tony didn't dare allow himself to hope, not after the dreams he'd had.

"Tony, please," Steve continued, very familiar blue eyes looking a cross between anguished and panicked. "Tell me you remember the dragons. Everyone thinks I'm insane after the ice and I had to break out to get here. No one believes me, not even Sam or Peggy!"

Tony, despite Jarvis's mental voice screaming in his ear and years of reflexes, dropped the gun. He didn't even look down at it. Tony took a step back as the heart pump started to work overtime. "How do I know you're real this time?" Tony asked, his hands trembling. In the dreams Steve had still been a dragon, but this...

"I told them to contact you," Steve muttered under his breath, followed by a string of curses.

"That's not even anatomically possible for dragons," Tony said, a hysterical laugh escaping him.

"Tony," Steve said, moving forward and looking very self-conscious while he did. Just as Steve got within a few steps, however, he misstepped and fell forward, taking Tony with him.

Tony grunted in pain as his ass hit the floor. He blinked up at the ceiling, Steve sprawled on top of him. He could _feel_ Steve's frustration and embarrassment as the man whined low in the back of his throat.

Steve only made things worse when he tried to scramble off Tony. "Damn it, sorry. Balancing without my tail is - Ouf!"

To avoid getting an elbow to the gut when Steve inevitably tried again, Tony reached up. Steve went completely still as Tony touched his cheek. He rubbed it gently, the motion far more intimate than it ever had been with the dragons.

Steve closed his eyes, breathing out in relief. He buried his head against Tony's chest, wrapping his arms around him tightly. It was a little uncomfortable with the pressure on the heart pump, but Tony didn't dare move and break the moment. "You remember," Steve said, holding him tigher.

"Steve..." This was a dream. It had to be a dream. The bond wasn't as strong like before, but he could still sense Steve's feelings.

It was suddenly very hard to breathe.

"Tony, hey. It's okay," Steve said, this time succeeding in getting off. He pulled Tony up before returning to hug him.

"You were dead," Tony said, shaking his head. He could still remember holding Steve's head in his arms after he'd gone, lost in the darkness of the cold cave. The arms around him gave him a dissonance that confused him. They were both too familiar and not familiar at all, reminding him of what he'd lost, but what he might be gaining. "And you're no longer a dragon? How...?"

Steve laughed. It was a soft chuckle that warmed a part of Tony he hadn't realized was cold. "You're not gonna like the answer to that."

Tony groaned, hitting his forehead against Steve's shoulder. "Magic."

"Magic," Steve agreed cheerfully. And magic saw fit to make Steve from Brooklyn, of all places. "I think when I was trying to fix your heart, the magic must have seen the sacrifice. They say the deep magic works best with sacrifice and you... Well, Wanda did say there was hope. I wonder if she knew."

"The others," Tony said, his shoulders tensing. "Are they-"

"All here," Steve said with a grin. "Not the rest of the city, but everyone who fought with us are humans now too." Then he scowled. "But I'm the only one who remembers. They thought I was crazy! Wanda might remember, but I haven't seen her since before the ice. She comes and goes."

"The ice?" Tony asked.

Steve shivered and Tony moved closer, taking Steve's hands in his to warm him up. "The ship I was on went down in the arctic. I was frozen for a while, but they found me and were pretty surprised I was still alive. I don't remember much of it, but I remember the cold."

"Cryogenic suspension," Tony said, surprised delight filling him. _Science_. Science he could do and understand. He started working out the science behind it and what he'd read on the serum. "The Serum had to have-"

He was cut off by the look on Steve's face. He was smiling softly, fondness in his eyes as he intertwined their fingers. It was like something Tony had done amused him terribly, but Tony couldn't have said what it was. "You're more handsome now that I have human memories. Didn't want to tell you, but I thought you looked a bit funny when I was a dragon."

Indignation over came the blush, thankfully. "Just because you can't appreciate fine specimens of humanity is no reason to wound a man's pride by saying he 'looks funny.'" Tony stood and brushed himself off, the bond lessening when he was no longer touching Steve, but it was still there. He could feel Steve pouting. "What are you doing in my workshop anyway? And how did you get in?" he asked, wiping away the wetness around his eyes.

"Thought it'd be the best place to find you," Steve said. "I, uh, got pretty good at breaking and entering during the War. Also, Fury has your codes."

"I'll keep that in mind when I upgrade the security on this place. Which will be soon," Tony grouched, offering Steve a hand up. His codes were going to be changed and soon, and he was going to find out what mole Fury used to infiltrate the place.

Then the realization occurred to him. "You're the ghost that's been stealing food and scaring the staff."

Steve flushed. "I didn't mean to scare any one. I just ah... I eat a lot with the serum. I'll pay you back."

Tony waved it off. "Millionaire, remember?"

They fell quiet after that. Tony stared at Steve, taking in all he could. Steve was handsome, but he'd known that from the pictures. There was a certain amount of _dragon_ to the way Steve moved that the pictures didn't capture. When he wasn't stumbling over his own two feet, at any rate.

Steve was alive.

"Come on," Steve said, putting an arm around his shoulders. "We can sit and I'll tell you about the others."

Steve led him to the couch. Or tried to. He nearly brought both of them down again, but Tony steadied him. "Are you always this much of a klutz?"

"No," Steve said miserably. "Only since I remembered being a dragon after coming out of the ice. It's fine when I'm not thinking about it, but how do you even balance without a tail?"

Tony laughed. It was a small and broken sound, but he felt better than he had since he'd been found. "You're pushing forward on your center of gravity too much. You just have to get used to being human. And stop being so self-conscious and over-analyzing things."

Steve sighed as he sat down, and Tony got the impression he wasn't usually that self-conscious once he learned how to control his strength in his post serum body. The thought also implied Tony was part of the cause, a fact Tony didn't know what to make of. "I have to get _re-used_ to it. I remember my life before I was a dragon too. It's just such a jumble right now that it's hard to remember which is which."

"You remember meeting me as a human? I don't. Remember meeting human you, I mean. All of this is news to me," Tony said.

Another flush crept up Steve's face. "Peggy's never let me forget it. It's a good thing you don't remember," Steve muttered.

Tony opened his mouth to ask, but Steve plowed on. "She's British, you know? Peggy's an agent with the SSR and I think she's got Fury scared of her."

Tony made a mental note to ask Peggy about the story later. And to get her in the same room with Fury, because _that_ he needed to see. "She's alive," Tony said, remembering the grief and Sharon's screams.

"Yeah," Steve said, going through the same memories. "She's alive. Sharon might not be for much longer though, if she keeps trying to sneak out into the battle with us. Peggy'll kill her herself if she keeps that up. She's only twelve and she wants to go to war. She sounds American, by the way. They moved to the States when she was young."

That didn't seem to change. Tony smiled, imagining that Sharon at any age would be a handful, all seriousness and stubborn resolve.

"Sam?" he asked.

"Pararescue. Not much call for it in the regular service, but he's damned good at it and I don't go out without him. I think he misses flying, though he wouldn't remember that. Saved my life more than once," Steve said, his smile fond.

"Might have something to help with that," Tony said, thinking back to one of the early versions of the armors where he'd tried actual wings. It ended up not being good for a frontal assault, but for someone with skills like those that Sam was bound to have, it would be both deadly and a life saver. He could trust Sam to use them properly too.

Steve smiled at him, reaching out to touch his cheek. Tony's breath caught as Steve's fingers traced their way down Tony's goatee. "I was always so afraid my claws would hurt you when I was a dragon. And now... Half of my memories are telling me this is normal, the other half..."

It was way more intimate with another human. Tony told himself very firmly now was not the time. He cleared his throat and Steve pulled back. Tony didn't know if he was relieved or disappointed.

"The others are from all over," Steve said, looking away as he fidgeted. "But we're still fighting together. Except for Wanda. She... she comes and goes when she's needed. She still has some strong powers, but it's personal for her. She won't say anything, but I think she has family in one of those concentration camps I saw in your memories. Or had."

Tony very carefully blanked his mind of those memories, knowing they only brought more pain to both of them. He wondered what sort of pain Wanda as a human carried around. "Jewish?" he asked.

"And Romani," Steve replied.

Tony thought back to Wanda's cheek against his, the raw power of her magic with the kindness underneath. She'd always let him know there was hope and it wasn't his fault. He clenched his jaw, sharp anger burning through him that he could feel reflected in Steve.

"She was the one who urged me to go up and actually talk to you when we first met as humans," Steve continued, his hand squeezing Tony's shoulder. "Some of the other men are scared of her, but when she's in our camp, she smiles more."

"You've gotten beaten up because someone said the wrong thing about her, haven't you?" Tony said, a smile teasing at his lips even as he tried to hide his amusement.

Steve smiled innocently. "Not since the serum," he said. "That would be bad press. Besides, now _I_ beat _them_ up."

"That doesn't surprise me," Tony said. He'd seen how many reprimands Steve had in his folder and Tony was pretty sure Steve wasn't sorry for any of them. Still, he'd like to talk to Wanda and the others when he got the chance. He owed them a lot. "I take it you've already seen the stars?"

"I..." Steve's eyes widened in surprise and he rubbed his forehead. "I have. Plenty of times, I guess. We navigate by them in the field. I like the sun too, because that always warms me up. It's pretty swell."

"'Pretty swell,' he says," Tony muttered, looking away. Of course Steve had already seen them. That didn't make the disappointment any less crushing. He tried to hide it, but by the expression on Steve's face, he hadn't been quick enough.

"I snuck out during the day," Steve said. "The guards weren't paying attention to a lowly technician, so I slipped out."

"Sneaky," Tony said, amused in spite of himself.

"I've been holing up down here since then. No one comes down here and I can sneak food in the morning before anyone comes in. I haven't... Not since I've remembered. I haven't seen them."

The balcony on the third floor had a spectacular view. There was still smog from the city, but it was a pretty clear day today. He opened his mouth to suggest it when Steve grabbed his hand. It sent a warm spike through him and he stared down at where they were joined. Steve was here. "We can see them now," Steve said, drawing Tony's eyes to a boyish smile that lit up his whole face.

Tony honestly didn't think he could say no to anything if Steve was going to smile at him like that. "Yes. I mean, sure," Tony said, stumbling over the words as all of his usual charm left him. "I know just the place."

Steve let him lead the way, only tugging Tony back when they nearly ran into someone, pushing him into an empty room. They waited for the footsteps to recede and he grinned sheepishly at Tony. "Sorry," he said. "Habit."

Tony waved it off. Anyone seeing them would probably create a ruckus and he wasn't opposed to keeping Steve to himself for a little while longer.

Finally, they reached the balcony. There was still a bit of haze and the lights from the city clouded the view, but the stars could be seen easily enough. He heard Steve suck in a breath beside him.

Tony turned to look at him. In the lights of the city he could see the awe on his face. "Feeling a little star-struck?" Tony asked, because if he stared for too much longer he would probably do something he'd regret.

Steve laughed, a low chuckle that made Tony's heart pump work over time. "You could say that," he said, shaking his head. "I've never... I must have seen them a thousand times, but never like this."

"With the smoke from industrialization blocking the view?" Tony asked.

"With knowing I spent over a century longing to see them," Steve replied, looking wistful. "Do you still have the crystal?"

Tony scrambled to pull it out of his pocket. "It's just a normal quartz now," Tony said. "It doesn't glow. I've tried to recreate the effect, but nothing works."

"But you kept it."

"I did." He held it out for Steve to see, feeling oddly vulnerable as he did. Steve picked it up, lightly tracing the edges before he gave it back. "It was real," Steve said.

"Yeah," Tony said, gripping the crystal tightly. After all the disbelief, it had been real. "It was."

"Dance with me," Steve said.

"What?"

"You promised me a dance under the stars." Steve smiled again like he hadn't a care in the world.

But he did. And Tony did. Tony wasn't sure how much of this he could take before his resolve broke. "Steve, you know it's different with humans. You could get a blue discharge."

"You think the army would get rid of its only super-soldier?" Steve asked, sounding far too reasonable. "Besides, there's no one here but the stars to watch us."

Tony hesitated. He was falling and falling hard. And Steve was compromised. He had just nearly died - twice over - and remembered all the events of his past life all within a very short time. Even if Tony wanted to make a move, he'd only be taking advantage.

"Please?" Steve asked, holding out his hand.

Just like that, Tony's resolve was washed away like a leaf on the river. He took Steve's hand, hoping his nerves didn't show. "Think you can do it without stepping on my toes?"

Steve's face fell. "I didn't think of that. And now I'm going to and mess things up."

"You've got your memories as a human," Tony teased gently as Steve's arm braced around his back. "Should be a piece of cake. You really want to lead like this though?"

" _You_ try waking up and lacking a tail," Steve grumbled. "Dragon dancing was so much easier. I think if I try to follow, I'll trip up even worse. I haven't had a lot of practice with human dancing."

Tony laughed. "Alright, 'Captain America.' Lead the way," Tony said, humming a Cole Porter tune under his breath.

Steve started to move slowly, only having to stop and apologize twice for stepping on Tony's feet. After a moment Steve's natural grace kicked in and they started to move across the balcony slowly. Steve was looking up at the stars, not at Tony, and Tony hid the disappointment deep enough that Steve wouldn't be able to find it. It was hard to be bitter anyway when he could feel Steve's wonder and amazement. It wasn't like Tony could really compete with the night sky.

Tony wasn't a small man, but he felt small in Steve's arms. He wondered what it would have been like to meet Steve before the serum. He thought back to the pictures of a skinny man with a list of health problems and shook his head. Only Steve would be that stubborn. Too damn stubborn to die even back then.

"You're pretty far away," Steve said.

He was looking at Tony now and he wasn't sure what to do with the scrutiny now that he had it. "Just thinking."

"About me," Steve said smugly, spinning them both around and rocking back.

Tony looked up at the stars, thinking of the crest Steve had worn as a dragon. "You died," Tony said, staring at the North Star. He shivered, remembering the bone chilling cold.

Steve stopped moving, his hands coming up so that he held Tony's face. Tony closed his eyes and sighed as Steve's thumbs brushed over his cheek bones. "Steve..."

There was something soft and inviting brushing across his lips. _Steve_ , his mind supplied. Steve was kissing him under the stars with his hands framing Tony's face. Steve was kissing him slowly and sweetly, like the rest of the world and the War didn't exist.

Tony could get lost in that feeling, in the tenderness of Steve's thumbs and the desperate way Tony clung to his wrists to keep him there. There was a wistfulness and longing to the kiss that could be coming from either him or Steve, he couldn’t tell.

But he pulled back, feeling Steve's confusion and disappointment as he did and hating himself a little, yet needing to put some distance between them. He couldn't take advantage of Steve like this. It was even more of an effort to let go of Steve's wrists, but he forced his fingers to cooperate.

"Tony, what-"

"Steve, not even four weeks ago you didn't even know what humans looked like without their clothes," Tony said.

Steve flushed, but plowed on. "I'm pretty sure I've got a decent handle on that now."

Tony resisted the urge to make a joke on that, but only because he couldn't afford to sound like he was coming on to Steve. "You just died and-"

"I walked it off."

"-and turned into a human who has problems 'walking it off.' You're a lot easier to hurt," Tony said. "Steve, you're a dragon. I can't-"

"I'm not a dragon _now_ ," Steve said, anger and confusion taking over as he interrupted. "I don't see why you're making a big fuss over it. You always tried to hide it from me when I was a dragon, which I still don't completely understand, but now what's holding you back?"

That brought Tony up short. He felt the blood drain from his face. "You knew."

"Of course I did," Steve said, throwing his hands up in exasperation. "You could hide a lot of things, Tony, but not the fact that you loved me."

Tony watched as confusion won over the frustration on Steve's face, probably reacting to the emotions Tony was too angry to hide. He stepped forward, trying to capture Tony's hand, but Tony slapped his hand away. "Tony-"

"So if I couldn't hide it from you, what does that make this?" Tony asked. "Is this pity or guilt? I don't want either."

"What?" Steve asked.

Tony could sense the bafflement coming from him, but he focused on his own hurt and anger. "You never felt this way as a dragon," Tony said. "You were even worse at hiding things from me, so I would have felt it. I looked, Steve! You didn't! So tell me what this is."

Steve looked like he'd been slapped, but Tony didn't back down. Everything that happened in that underground city was Tony's fault and Steve was just going to forget all of that? The War was still going on and Tony was here, taking advantage of someone who hadn't even been human for a week. He was disgusted with himself.

" _No,_ " Steve said, his eyes wide. It was strange, seeing Steve with human tells instead of dragon ones. Tony realized then how much he must have been broadcasting, because Steve was now looking guilty. "Tony, that wasn't your fault."

"Yes, it was," Tony said, turning away. He kept his back to Steve as he walked to the rail, gripping it tightly. He didn't really see the city lights or the stars, just staring straight ahead into the darkness. Steve hadn't denied the part about his feelings either.

He jumped when arms snuck around him, the bond growing stronger with the contact. Steve was pouring emotion through the link - love and affection that made Tony both shaken and angry. "Don't-"

"Hear me out," Steve pleaded. "I'm sorry. I hadn't realized... Tony, I loved you when I was a dragon more than anything. Maybe it's not the same feeling as a human, but you gave me back what I was missing and _more_. You kept me warm when I didn't think I ever could be again. None of what happened was your fault."

"What about not telling you about Viper?" Tony asked, seeing as he was a glutton for punishment.

He felt Steve sigh in frustration against his ear, sending shivers down Tony's spine. "That _was_ your fault," Steve said, hugging Tony tighter. "You should have trusted us more. But Viper betraying your trust and waking up the hydra, that was all her, Tony. Not you. And you being an idiot sometimes doesn't mean I don't still love you. Especially not when Peggy would say I'm just as bad about being stubborn."

Tony felt the fight drain out of him in the face of Steve's love, but the guilt remained. Steve's arms tightened around him as Tony shook his head. "I can't... Steve, you're emotionally compromised right now. You've only been human for a week."

"I've only remembered I was a dragon for a week. You're the one without the memories. The magic made me a human a lot longer than one week, Tony. And I've been attracted to you since before that, even if you don't remember our first meeting in this world."

He was definitely going to have to grill Peggy about their first meeting. This was information that was obviously important for Tony to know. "That doesn't mean you're not more impressionable right now," Tony said. "Would you keep going if it were me?"

Steve grumbled and Tony could feel the frustration rolling off of him, but he sighed and murmured an agreement. "I'll just have to prove I mean it slower then."

"You're insane," Tony said, hardly believing it even as Steve kept up a stubborn stream of affection and love. "And you're going to get a headache if you keep that up. You're not a dragon anymore, remember?"

"Fine," Steve said, only a little petulant as the emotions let up. "Come on. Let's..."

Tony looked behind him as Steve whined softly. He turned in Steve's arms, biting his lip in worry. "What's wrong?" he asked. If Steve had a reaction headache from over indulging in the link, it wasn't bad enough Tony could feel it.

"I can't... I'm not big enough to protect you anymore."

"You..." Tony raised his eyebrow, realizing what Steve meant. He wasn't big enough to wrap around Tony anymore. He laughed softly at the frown on Steve's face as the other man continued to grumble. He leaned in, touching their foreheads together as Steve's breath caught. He _would_ miss being wrapped up in dragon, but that didn't mean he couldn't get used to this as well. "I can take care of myself, ya know. And it's not like you're tiny now."

Tony pat Steve's bicep in proof, reminding himself that he needed to keep this platonic for now. Later though... He could think about later at another time. "But you can still rest your head in my lap, if you like," Tony offered hesitantly, because Steve did look put out and that... Okay, that was pushing platonic, but Tony wasn't strong enough to push Steve away completely.

Steve grew thoughtful. "I would like that," he said, detangling himself from Tony. "Tell me about the stars?"

"You probably know as much about them as I do," Tony said, but he allowed Steve to pull him along to the center of the balcony. He knelt down, sitting back on his heels as Steve quickly claimed his lap. "You can't be comfortable like that."

"I've slept in worse places," Steve said with a grin. "And this way I get to see both you _and_ the stars."

Tony was awfully glad it was dark, because he couldn't fight down the blush. "You can go to the library and look up the stars yourself," Tony muttered.

"I haven't actually learned much mythology, not like you have," Steve said. "My schooling didn't cover most of that. Besides, I like it better when you say it. I've always liked your voice."

Steve seemed to know about Tony's blush regardless of his limited vision, the smug bastard, and he was dead set on making it worse. In revenge, Tony started to pet Steve's hair, running his fingers through the course strands. It wasn't the same as feeling the hard horns and soft scales, or having Steve's tail wrapped around him as he leaned against Steve's flank. It was a warm night though, and Steve's mind was still there, open and inviting, with a fond stubbornness that filled up the parts he was missing.

Neither of them felt cold.

"We can't stay like this," Tony said, knowing it couldn't last.

Steve sighed. "They need us in the War," he agreed. "I'm needed back on the front, and you need to fix the armor and work on undermining Hydra."

"Yeah," Tony said, seeing only a long road in front of them. He'd fought with the Japanese before. Even if they won the war in Europe, the Pacific theater would be a hard won battle, if it could be won at all.

People talked about 'after the War ended' all the time. Tony had never seen the point of the sentiment, because the War shortened enough lives that the only thing to do was to push forward and live in the real present no matter how dark that present was. There were times he didn't know if he wanted to survive or even if he should. Now though... Now, he had his friends and the dragons that he could get to know again. And he had Steve.

A lot of things suddenly seemed possible with Steve.

Steve's hands were resting on his chest as his eyes slid closed in pleasure with Tony's fingers in his hair. He let out a small whine when Tony stopped, opening his eyes when Tony claimed one of his hands. "Tony?"

Tony brought Steve's hand up to his lips, pressing a soft kiss to the knuckles of Steve's still deadly hands despite the lack of claws. 

"I thought that was a greeting used for courting," Steve said, a half smile quirking at his lips that Tony fell a little in love with. He was going to have to start categorizing Steve's smiles, and he wondered how they'd compare with his dragon expressions.

"After the War ends," Tony said, interlocking their fingers. "We can go out to the country and look at the stars properly. I've got a few houses upstate. No people to bother us or smog. We can just... watch the stars."

"That sounds good," Steve said, squeezing his hand. "You can give me another dance. I'll practice for the next time so I won't step on your feet."

"Only if you don't break your promise this time," Tony said, not sure if he could handle losing Steve again. Once had been too much.

"I'll always come back for my best fella," Steve said, his accent thick enough that Tony laughed. "That has a nice ring to it though. When the War ends..."

"Yeah," Tony said, holding Steve tighter. He'd protect Steve this time. He'd fix things. "When the War ends..."

~Fin~

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Mem: And there you have it. It's not quite as polished as I would like it to be since I was running out of time, but hopefully it works well enough. It's so loooooooooong. 
> 
> Once again, please check out [Inoshi's](http://angelinoshi.tumblr.com/)[ amazing art](http://angelinoshi.tumblr.com/post/120539806200/capimrbb2015) and let her know how awesome it is! Thank you for letting me write for your art!
> 
> If you were wondering what song Tony was humming at the end, I'm torn between Begin the Beguine and Looking at You. They both work rather well, especially the latter. I'm pretty sure I've used it in a Steve/Tony fic before though. Ah, well. My Cole Porter fangirl is showing. 
> 
> As you can see, my track record with mythical creatures is really not improving. Really, you should keep all of them away from me. I get trigger happy. They survived in the end though? Well, Viper's is any one's guess. She's snakey enough she could have slithered out, I suppose. The Winter Dragon will not be written by me, but know that a metal wing and cryogenic freezing is horrifically scarring for a dragon who is hurt badly by both and the very first thing Tony does once the conditioning is broken is make a wing that wouldn't hurt Bucky. There is a happy ending there too. I'm just, ya know, not even considering writing it because this is just too long as it is. But anyone else is welcome to it. XD
> 
> Hopefully everyone enjoyed the fic! You can find me on tumblr [here](http://memorydragon.tumblr.com/).
> 
> I'll end with some Churchill, because the War was a rather big part of this fic.
> 
> Quote of the fic:
> 
> "Never, never, never believe any war will be smooth and easy, or that anyone who embarks on the strange voyage can measure the tides and hurricanes he will encounter. The statesman who yields to war fever must realize that once the signal is given, he is no longer the master of policy but the slave of unforeseeable and uncontrollable events."  
> \--Sir Winston Churchill


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